Hurricane Norma, which had entered Category 4, was downgraded to Category 3 on Thursday as it approached the coast of Baja California in northwestern Mexico, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
According to the NHC, the phenomenon was located 425 km west of Manzanillo at 21:00 GMT, with winds of 205 km/h and a speed of 9 km/h.
The institute predicts that “Norma will continue to weaken in the coming days,” but remains a hurricane near southern Baja California.
By Thursday morning Norma had strengthened and reached category 4 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale with wind speeds of 250 km/h.
According to the trajectory forecast by Mexico’s National Water Commission, Norma is expected to make landfall twice, first on Saturday afternoon as a hurricane near the municipality of San José del Cabo, Baja California to the south, then on Sunday as a tropical storm on the coast of Sinaloa state.
The strong hurricane’s approach to the peninsula, where the seaside resort of Los Cabos, popular with tourists from the United States, is located, prompted the government to activate a national emergency plan led by the army. According to the National Defense Secretariat, more than 6,600 soldiers have been placed on alert.
Last week, western Mexico was hit by another powerful hurricane, Lidia, killing two people in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit.
Due to its long coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Mexico is regularly exposed to hurricanes that form offshore.
A dozen depressions a year can turn into more or less devastating hurricanes, depending on the point of entry.
However, the strongest wind ever recorded, Patricia, with wind speeds of 325 km/h in October 2015, only caused material damage as it entered the area through an uninhabited mountain area.