Hurricane Roxanne was a rare and erratic tropical cyclone that caused extensive flooding in Mexico due to its unusual movement.

As Roxanne headed generally westward, it began to rapidly deepen and reached Category 3 intensity less than 24 hours after becoming a hurricane.

Shortly thereafter, Roxanne made landfall near Cozumel, Mexico at its peak intensity, which caused severe damage.

Roxanne rapidly weakened while traversing the Yucatan Peninsula, and when it emerged into the Bay of Campeche on October 12, the storm was a Category 1 hurricane.

Thereafter, Roxanne began to meander erratically in the Gulf of Mexico; the storm turned abruptly southeastward and remained nearly stationary offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula.

A cold front in the Gulf of Mexico turned Roxanne abruptly southward, and the storm dissipated just offshore of Veracruz on October 21.

Heavy rainfall, in turn, led to extensive flooding, which destroyed crop, washed out roads, and damaged at least 40,000 homes.

In addition, significant coastal flooding also occurred, as storm surge for nearly a week caused water to travel inland for hundreds of yards.

An upper-level trough, left behind after Hurricane Opal exited the region, interacted with the tropical wave and the circulation, which gradually became better organized; the origins were complex, but common for disturbances over the western Caribbean.

Late that day, the system organized enough for the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to designate it Tropical Depression Nineteen, located off the northeast tip of Nicaragua.

Initially, the storm threatened western Cuba and the Cayman Islands, steered by a weak trough over Florida, which moved eastward and was replaced by a ridge in the area.

Shortly after Roxanne reached peak intensity, the hurricane made landfall just north of Tulum, a small town near Cozumel, Mexico.

[1] Moving westward across the Yucatán Peninsula, Roxanne weakened but maintained hurricane status as it emerged into the Bay of Campeche on October 12.

Drier air, wind shear, and upwelling caused the hurricane to weaken back to a tropical storm.

On October 9, the government of Mexico raised hurricane watches for coastal areas between Chetumal, Quintana Roo and Cabo Catoche.

With Roxanne maintaining its intensity over the Yucatán, the Mexican government issued a hurricane warning from Coatzacoalcos to Tuxpan, as the storm was initially projected to go more westward.

In the city of Cancún, roughly 12,000 tourists and 3,900 residents relocated to safer areas; however, some refused to leave and decided to wait out the storm in hotels.

In the Gulf of Mexico, 15 to 20 ft (4.6 to 6.1 m) waves struck the Mexican coast while Roxanne drifted offshore for a few days, pushing water hundreds of yards inland.

[17] Roxanne caused widespread flooding and agriculture damage in eastern Mexico, notably in Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz.

[18] Due to the scale of the damage the hurricane caused in Mexico, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Roxanne in the spring of 1996, and it will never again be used for a North Atlantic tropical storm.