Rainfall Follows Rosa

Hurricane Rosa weakened to a Tropical Storm before making landfall in Mexico in late September of 2018, but its remnants carried uncharacteristically heavy precipitation to the desert landscapes along the Gulf of California.

Rain caused flooding through Puerto Peñasco, a popular resort in the Mexican state of Sonora just south of the Arizona border.

Landsat 8 images captured before and after the rain show the impact. The waters along the beach known as Playa Encanto are tinged with green in an image captured on September 20. The area north and east of the beach was thick with brown, muddy water by October 6, with pooling mud stretching across roadways and north toward the runway of the Sea of Cortez International Airport, which appears bright white in the image.

Landsat images archived at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center can be used to track the impact of storms and other natural disasters.