Cristina (2020)

A tropical wave that moved into the eastern North Pacific developed organized convection and became a tropical depression on July 6, 2020, about 380 nautical miles (n mi) south of Acapulco, Mexico. The system moved generally west-northwest to northwest under the influence of a subtropical ridge and strengthened into Tropical Storm Cristina on July 7. Cristina slowly intensified while over open water and reached its greatest strength on July 10–11 before encountering cooler water and drier air and weakening. The cyclone became a post-tropical gale-force low on July 12 about 860 n mi west of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula and its remnants opened into a trough by July 15–16 roughly halfway between Baja California and Hawaii.

Cristina remained well offshore for its entire life and did not make landfall. No coastal watches or warnings were issued for Mexico or the United States because the storm stayed over the open Pacific.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds peaked at 60 knots (about 69 mph) and its estimated minimum central pressure at peak was 993 millibars. That peak intensity corresponds to a strong tropical storm (below hurricane strength). The official best-track peak was centered near 19.4°N, 114.8°W on 10 July at 1800 UTC.

Because Cristina remained far from land, there were no reports of storm surge impacts, and there were no ship reports of tropical-storm-force winds. The NHC report recorded no rainfall totals or surge measurements at land locations associated with Cristina, and no coastal cities or counties were noted as receiving storm-related surge or heavy rainfall.

There were no reported deaths, injuries, or damage connected with Cristina. One noteworthy aspect of this storm was uncertainty in intensity estimates during its peak: different satellite techniques produced a range of values (subjective estimates up to 77 kt versus objective estimates as low as 47 kt), and forecasters noted a higher-than-usual bias in many intensity forecasts. Track forecasts were generally close to the long-term mean errors and performed slightly better than average at many forecast times.