2004 Pacific hurricane season

In early August, the remnants of Hurricane Darby contributed to localized heavy rainfall in Hawaii, causing minor street and stream flooding; coffee and macadamia trees were damaged as well.

In early September, Hurricane Howard resulted in significant flooding across the Baja California peninsula that damaged agricultural land and 393 homes.

In mid-September, Javier, the strongest hurricane of the season, caused three fishermen to go missing and helped alleviate a multi-year drought across the Southwest United States.

Increasingly cool ocean temperatures and a drier air mass caused Agatha to weaken quickly thereafter, and it degenerated into a remnant low by 12:00 UTC on May 24.

[16] Steered westward by low-level flow, the depression failed to organize amid wind shear and cooler sea surface temperatures,[17] instead degenerating into a remnant low at 00:00 UTC on July 4.

Steered swiftly northwestward around a mid-level ridge over the southwestern United States, the cyclone steadily intensified and reached peak winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) early on July 13 as a large and robust convective canopy became evident.

The system quickly intensified as it curved west-northwest around a subtropical ridge, becoming Tropical Storm Darby at 00:00 UTC on July 27 and strengthening into a Category 1 hurricane early the next day.

[22] Operationally, an area of disturbed weather was thought to have coalesced into a tropical depression at 09:00 UTC on July 29 while located well southwest of the Baja California Peninsula.

Steered northwest within a favorable environment, the cyclone rapidly intensified into a Category 1 hurricane by 18:00 UTC and ultimately attained peak winds of 85 mph (137 km/h) twelve hours later.

Steered north-northwest and eventually west, the cyclone failed to intensify further into a tropical storm amid cool sea surface temperatures and southerly wind shear, and it instead degenerated into a remnant low at 18:00 UTC on August 26.

The depression intensified into Tropical Storm Georgette six hours later as its satellite presentation improved, and it reached peak winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) at 12:00 UTC on August 27.

Increasingly hostile upper-level winds began to impinge on the west-northwest-moving tropical cyclone shortly thereafter, ultimately causing it to degenerate into a remnant low by 18:00 UTC on August 30.

On its northwest track, a favorable environment regime prompted the cyclone to begin a period of rapid intensification, and it attained its peak as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph (230 km/h) at 12:00 UTC on September 2.

Cooler ocean temperatures led to a steady weakening trend thereafter, and Howard degenerated into a remnant low at 18:00 UTC on September 5.

After conducting a clockwise loop, the hurricane entered cooler waters and began to weaken; it degenerated into a remnant low at 18:00 UTC on the next day.

The cyclone soon began a period of rapid intensification as it alternated on a west-northwest to northwest course, ultimately peaking as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) at 00:00 UTC on September 14 as a distinct pinhole eye became evident on satellite imagery.

[40] The remnants of Javier produced 2 in (51 mm) of rain in Wyoming, cementing its status as the wettest tropical cyclone in the reliable record there.

[41] An area of disturbed weather developed within the ITCZ well southwest of mainland Mexico, coalescing into a tropical depression at 18:00 UTC on October 4.

The depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Kay twelve hours later, and it attained peak winds of 45 mph (72 km/h) at 12:00 UTC the next morning as suggested by satellite intensity estimates.

Moderate northerly shear caused core convection to decrease as the system moved west-northwest, resulting in Kay degenerating into a remnant low at 12:00 UTC on October 6 over open ocean.

The disturbance continued to in this manner, and at 1800 UTC on October 11, the low level circulation had become sufficiently organized to be designated as a tropical depression.

[45] Continuing its slow, northwestward track under the weal steering currents of a weak mid-level ridge to its north, and a broad cyclonic circulation to its southwest, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Lester at 1800 UTC on October 12.

[43] Early on October 13, radar imagery from Acapulco, Mexico indicated that Lester remained a small and well-organized cyclone as it passed just offshore.

[47] The interaction with land, combined with influence from the low to the southwest, started to weaken the storm, and it was downgraded to a tropical depression at 1200 UTC on October 13.

By later that day, reports from an Air Force Reserve Unit Hurricane Hunter Aircraft indicated that the cyclone had degenerated into a trough on the northeastern side of the larger low to the southwest.

[43] On October 12, in response to Lester, the Mexican government issued a tropical storm watch for the coast between Punta Maldonado to Zihuatanejo.

As is typical of disturbances in the late hurricane season, the wave maintained a relatively low latitude during its trek across the Atlantic.

At the time, the storm was being disrupted by wind shear, with most of its deep convective activity concentrated in the eastern half of the circulation.

Tropical Depression Sixteen-E continued moving towards the coast of Mexico, and at 00:00 UTC on October 26, it reached its lowest barometric pressure of 1004 mbar (hPa; 29.65 inHg).

The interaction between the depression's remnants and a frontal boundary over the southwestern United States produced strong thunderstorms and heavy precipitation in eastern New Mexico, western and central Texas, and much of Oklahoma.