Map shows Priscilla strengthen to hurricane threatening southwest Mexico with deadly winds and flooding
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Priscilla’s maximum sustained winds were 75 mph and that the storm was located about 290 miles south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes. It was headed north-northwest at 3 mph
Tropical Storm Priscilla strengthened into a hurricane Sunday morning as it lingers off the southwest coast of Mexico.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Priscilla’s maximum sustained winds were 75 mph and that the storm was located about 290 miles south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes. It was headed north-northwest at 3 mph.
The center says heavy rainfall and gusty winds are affecting coastal southwestern Mexico with flash flooding possible. Swells generated by Priscilla are affecting parts of the coast in the region and will reach some coastal areas in western and central Mexico and southern Baja California by Monday. The swells are expected to create life-threatening surf and rip currents.
A tropical storm watch was issued for much of the coast of southwest Mexico on Saturday, from Punta San Telmo to Punta Mita, with tropical storm conditions in the area Sunday and Monday. Rainfall of up to 6 inches was possible.
Another storm well off Mexico in the Pacific, Octave, became a hurricane Sunday with no landfall in the forecast and no coastal watches or warnings. Its top winds were near 80 mph (130 kph), and the hurricane center said it was expected to gradually weaken on Monday. It was located about 995 miles west-southwest of Baja California’s southern tip and was moving northeast at 6 mph.
Hurricanes and tropical storms are historically rare in the Pacific Ocean due to waters significantly cooler compared to those in the Atlantic. But as climate change has accelerated and warmed the waters of the Pacific, causing an increased number of named storms in the past several years.
“The Pacific is a much larger body of water, and a lot of that water is in the tropics,” says University of North Carolina climatologist Charles Konrad, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Southeast Regional Climate Center. “It's the biggest spawning ground for what we call tropical cyclones, which include hurricanes and tropical storms. More of them form out there.”
One new study published in NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science predicts hurricanes in the Atlantic could double over the next decade compared to the 1970s, with storms in the eastern pacific increasing by a third.