Baja California Sur in the context of "Gulf of California"

Sinaloa (Spanish pronunciation: [sinaˈloa] ), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa (English: Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 20 municipalities, and its capital and largest city is Culiacán Rosales. Other large cities include Mazatlán, Los Mochis, Guamúchil, and Guasave.

Sinaloa is located in northwest Mexico and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the northwest, Chihuahua to the north, Durango to the east, and Nayarit to the southeast. To the west, Sinaloa faces Baja California Sur, across the Gulf of California. Its natural geography is divided by the Sierra Madre Occidental, fertile river valleys, and a broad coastal plain along the Gulf of California. The state covers an area of 58,328 square kilometers (22,521 sq mi) and includes the islands of Palmito Verde, Palmito de la Virgen, Altamura, Santa María, Saliaca, Macapule, and San Ignacio.

The Gulf of California (Spanish: Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (Mar de Cortés) or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (Mar Vermejo), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from the Mexican mainland. It is bordered by the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa with a coastline of approximately 4,000 km (2,500 mi). Rivers that flow into the Gulf of California include the Colorado, Fuerte, Mayo, Sinaloa, Sonora, and the Yaqui. The surface of the gulf is about 160,000 km (62,000 sq mi). Maximum depths exceed 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) because of the complex geology, linked to plate tectonics.

The gulf is thought to be one of the most diverse seas on Earth and is home to more than 5,000 species of micro-invertebrates. Parts of the Gulf of California are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Northern Mexico (Spanish: el Norte de México, pronounced [el ˈnoɾte ðe ˈmexiko] ), commonly referred as The North (Spanish: El Norte), is an informal term for the northern cultural and geographical area in Mexico. Depending on the source, it contains some or all of the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tamaulipas.

There is no specific border that separates the northern states from the southern states in Mexico. For some authors, only states that have a border with the United States are considered as northern Mexico, i.e. Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora and Tamaulipas. Others also include Durango, Sinaloa and Baja California Sur. Other people consider that the north starts above the Tropic of Cancer, but this description would include some parts of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí that are not considered northern states.

The Sonoran Desert (Spanish: Desierto de Sonora) is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It is the hottest desert in Mexico. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).

In phytogeography, the Sonoran Desert is within the Sonoran floristic province of the Madrean region of southwestern North America, part of the Holarctic realm of the northern Western Hemisphere. The desert contains a variety of unique endemic plants and animals, notably, the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) and organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi).

Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California (Territorio Norte de Baja California). It has an area of 70,113 km (27,071 sq mi) (3.57% of the land mass of Mexico) and comprises the northern half of the Baja California peninsula, north of the 28th parallel, plus oceanic Guadalupe Island. The mainland portion of the state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Sonora and the northern Gulf of California, on the north by the United States and on the south by Baja California Sur.

The state has an estimated population of 3,769,020 as of 2020, significantly higher than the sparsely populated Baja California Sur to the south, and similar to San Diego County, California, to its north. Over 75% of the population lives in Mexicali (the state's capital city), Ensenada, or Tijuana (the state's largest city). Other important cities include San Felipe, Rosarito, and Tecate.

Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650, the 8th lowest of Mexico's states, Durango has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja California Sur. The capital city, Victoria de Durango, is named after the first President of Mexico, Guadalupe Victoria.

Hurricane Jova was a very powerful tropical cyclone that became the first Pacific hurricane to reach Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson scale since Willa in 2018. Jova was also one of the fastest–intensifying tropical cyclones on record in the Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone basin. The tenth named storm, seventh hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of the 2023 Pacific hurricane season, Jova originated from a tropical wave that entered the Pacific Ocean on September 1. The system rapidly organized and became a tropical depression the following day. After brief inhibition by wind shear, The system explosively organized over the next two days. It formed a prominent in its central dense overcast on September 5 and nascent eye feature, Signaling its intensification into a hurricane. In a 24-hour period ending early on September 7, Jova's maximum sustained winds significantly increased from 90 mph (150 km/h) to its peak at 160 mph (260 km/h) and its central pressure fell 67 mbar (hPa; 1.89 inHg) to its minimum of 926 mbar (hPa; 27.43 inHg). This made it a Category 5 hurricane and was one of the five-fastest periods of intensification on record in the basin. Thereafter, an eyewall replacement cycle commenced. and decreasing sea surface temperatures caused the storm to gradually weaken, It fell below major hurricane status on September 8 and further weakened to a tropical storm on September 9. The total collapse of convection on September 10 marked its degeneration into a remnant low. The system later dissipated on September 12 as it opened up into a trough.

Jova's expansive cloud shield led to some rainfall in western states of Mexico with minor flooding occurring in Baja California Sur. Large waves and rip currents affected coastal areas from Sinaloa northward to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Flooding in Arizona inflicted $250,000 in damage.