Hurricane Simon Passed as a Category 4, and the Sierra Madre Took Some of the Edge Off

Hurricane Simon passed close to Mexico's Pacific coast as a category 4 storm on October 11, 2026, the latest in what NASA's Earth Observatory describes as a long progression of tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific that season. The National Hurricane Center noted that the topography of the Sierra Madre mountains appeared to temper the storm's intensity somewhat and shrink the size of its wind field. Notice the hedging: 'appeared to temper', 'somewhat'. The note doesn't claim the mountains broke the storm — it credits them with taking some of the edge off, a smaller and more interesting claim about how much of a hurricane's strength actually reaches the coast.