- Marie has weakened below hurricane strength, with the National Hurricane Center's Sunday night update placing top winds at 70 mph and the center about 695 miles southwest of San Diego; forecasters expect the system to lose its tropical structure late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
- Flooding tied to Marie's rain bands swamped streets and overflowed the Lagunitas creek in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, prompting school closures and port shutdowns; no deaths tied to the flooding had been confirmed in the reports we reviewed.
- Southern California beaches from Los Angeles to San Diego remain under high surf and coastal flood advisories, with some waves topping 10 feet and lifeguards warning of dangerous rip currents.
- Moisture pulled north from Marie is feeding the Southwest monsoon, keeping flash-flood danger elevated in Utah's national parks and the Grand Canyon, a week after flooding there killed two people.
Marie is no longer a hurricane. The system that spent the better part of a week churning off Mexico's Pacific coast dropped to tropical storm strength overnight, with the National Hurricane Center's Sunday evening advisory putting its top sustained winds at 70 miles per hour. But the flooding it left behind in Baja California Sur, the dangerous surf pounding Southern California beaches, and the flash-flood threat it is feeding as far away as the Grand Canyon are all still playing out this week.
None of that is likely to ease immediately. Marie remains centered several hundred miles from any coastline, so a landfall in the United States or mainland Mexico was never realistic. But the storm's unusually broad wind field means its reach extends far past its own center, and forecasters say the most significant remaining hazards are still unfolding this week.
From Tropical Storm to Hurricane and Back Again
Marie's life as a named storm began quietly. It organized as a tropical storm several hundred miles southwest of Manzanillo on September 1 with 45 mph winds. It intensified quickly, reaching hurricane strength within two days and continuing to build as it tracked northwest on a path roughly parallel to, rather than toward, the Mexican coast. By September 4, both Mexico's national weather service and the Hurricane Center's own wind estimates put Marie at Category 2 strength, with sustained winds near 100 mph. The storm held that intensity for roughly a day before beginning a steady decline: back to Category 1 by September 5, and by Sunday night, September 6, down to a 70 mph tropical storm — a slide the Hurricane Center attributes to the system's track over progressively cooler water and drier air.
Flooded Streets, a Closed Cantina and a Baby Born Mid-Storm
The heaviest confirmed damage sits in Baja California Sur. Rainfall topped 100 millimeters in a matter of hours around Ciudad Constitución, flooding homes, streets and highways. In Cabo San Lucas, the Lagunitas creek overflowed its banks hard enough to sweep through low-lying neighborhoods and nearly carry off a motorcyclist who tried to cross the rising water. In one especially dramatic moment, a woman went into labor while being driven to the hospital in Los Cabos; with flooded avenues blocking the ambulance's route, two civil-protection paramedics delivered the baby inside the vehicle, and mother and child were later reported in stable condition.
Víctor Manuel Castro, governor of Baja California Sur, ordered a suspension of classes across Los Cabos municipality, and maritime officials kept small vessels docked at Magdalena Bay and the port of San José del Cabo while Marie's outer bands moved through. Rock musician Sammy Hagar, whose Cabo Wabo Cantina took on water, later credited local cleanup crews in a social media post, writing simply, "Cabo to the rescue." No deaths tied to the flooding had been confirmed in the reports we reviewed.
California Feels the Swell From Hundreds of Miles Away
Southern California was never within Marie's direct path, but the storm's enormous wind field sent southerly swells rolling into the coast just as Labor Day crowds packed the sand. High surf advisories covered the shoreline from Los Angeles to San Diego, with the largest sets forecast to clear 10 feet, and coastal flood advisories went up over concerns about beach erosion and minor flooding around high tide. Forecasters expect the hazardous surf to keep hammering both sides of the border, from the Baja peninsula up through Southern California beaches, for several more days even as the storm itself continues to fade.
Inland, a southward kink in the jet stream funneled Marie's leftover moisture into an already active Southwest monsoon pattern. Forecasters flagged a lower-tier flash-flood risk reaching into the Los Angeles basin, with rainfall generally staying under an inch, while a sharper threat took shape farther east across northern Arizona, Utah and the southern tip of Nevada. A flood watch covered Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Glen Canyon, and forecasters singled out the Grand Canyon's slot canyons as especially dangerous — a pointed warning just a week after flooding there killed two people and triggered dozens of rescues.
What Happens From Here
Marie is expected to keep losing strength as it drifts over cooler water and drier air. The Hurricane Center's latest guidance calls for the system to shed its tropical structure and weaken into a leftover low-pressure area sometime late Tuesday or in the first hours of Wednesday, then dissipate entirely within another four to five days. Large swells are expected to linger along the Baja and Southern California coasts a bit longer than the storm itself, so lifeguards are likely to stay on alert even after Marie disappears from the forecast map. Mexico's weather service counts Marie as the 13th named storm of a Pacific season it expects to produce between 18 and 21 systems overall, well above the historical average — a pace tied in part to a strengthening El Niño pattern.
