El Niño helps Mexico duck a potentially bad hurricane season

Mexico weathered a record eastern Pacific hurricane season with almost no deaths and relatively few damages given the intensity of the storms.

Mexicans have wondered why the country escaped any major disaster in a year in which the number of "major" hurricanes broke records, and the Western Hemisphere's strongest hurricane hit land.

President Enrique Peña Nieto attributed the lack of damage to prayer circles and "the faith of the Mexican people."

But an expert from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday the same thing that made Pacific hurricanes stronger - the El Niño weather phenomenon - also made them less deadly.

Mexico suffered tens of millions in damage from Category 5 Hurricane Patricia, but ducked any major damage from eight other major hurricanes.