Ship reports indicated that a tropical depression had formed about 400 miles south-southwest of Acapulco
around noon on September 18th. The system drifted north-northwest, developing into a tropical storm that
night. About 24 hours later, Olivia became a hurricane. Rapid intensification continued, and Olivia reached
its peak intensity of 130 mph winds around noon on the 21st. The next day, waters under the tropical cyclone
began to cool as it gained increasing latitude offshore Mexico. By noon on the 23rd, the cyclone had weakened
into a tropical storm west of Baja California. Strong southwest flow to its north spread precipitation through the
western United States into southwest Canada. The cyclone weakened to a tropical depression about 500
miles southwest of San Diego, and the surface low was last seen dissipating on the 25th about 250 miles
west-southwest of San Diego. The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for Olivia, which used data
from the National Climatic Data Center. The heavy rain in California wiped out half of the raisin crop,
a quarter of the wine crop, and a tenth of the tomato crop.
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