Hurricane Hilary is keeping Mexico and the United States in suspense because the rainfall could be “catastrophic,” as the US National Hurricane Center described this Saturday morning. The storm remains in category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with wind speeds of 205 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 250 kilometers per hour. Hilary is located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, but weather forecasters expect its strength to propel it north of the Baja California Peninsula over the next few hours, where it will make landfall Sunday’s tropical storm. .
Hilary is located 375 kilometers west of Cabo San Lucas and 630 kilometers south of Punta Eugenia in Baja California Sur. Although the storm will continue to move parallel to the peninsula this Saturday, its winds will cause waves between 8 and 10 meters high, according to estimates by the Mexico Meteorological Service. The Mexican Navy has closed at least 15 ports in the region to prevent shipping from being affected by the phenomenon, and the government has dispatched around 18,000 troops to help the population with potential damage from the heavy rains.
Meteorologists expect Hilary to weaken Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning as it nears land. The forecast suggests that Hilary will arrive as a tropical storm in Baja California near the port of Ensenada on Sunday noon to continue its path toward Rosarito and Tijuana. The phenomenon will continue to advance north on land until it crosses the border between Mexico and the United States. Hilary will continue to bring heavy rains to southern California, which has already had the region’s first-ever tropical storm warning.
The population of the Baja California Peninsula has started to set up emergency shelters and collect food and water for the next few hours. Mexico’s National Disaster Response Coordination has opened emergency shelters in various parts of the region, both in Baja California and Baja California Sur. “Evacuations have begun in flood-prone areas, and sections of the road have been closed with fords,” the agency said in a statement.
The hurricane season in the Pacific begins in May each year – in the Atlantic on June 1st – and ends in late November. This year started with Cyclone Adrian and Tropical Storm Bret: the first approached Mexico from the Pacific, the second from the Atlantic. Other phenomena followed, such as Hurricane Beatriz, which threatened the western Mexican coasts with wind speeds of 120 kilometers per hour and finally dissipated off the coast of Jalisco.
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