A tropical storm that formed off the coast of Mexico rapidly strengthened on Wednesday to become Hurricane Adrian, the first named storm of the east Pacific hurricane season this year.
The storm was moving westward across the Pacific Ocean, away from land, on Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. It has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, slightly above the threshold — 74 mph — that makes an Atlantic or Northeast Pacific hurricane a hurricane. Tropical disturbances get a name when they have sustained winds of at least 39 mph
On Thursday, a separate tropical storm is expected to form further south in the Pacific Ocean, the center of the storm. speak. As of Wednesday night, that system is more than 300 miles southeast of Acapulco, Mexico. Several tropical storm warnings and trackers were in effect along the southwestern coast of the country.
As of Wednesday night, Hurricane Adrian was nearly 400 miles southwest of the Mexican coastal city of Manzanillo.
Maria Torres, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said that Adrian will maintain a general direction through Thursday and is expected to turn west-northwest on Friday.
She said the storm does not appear to be an immediate threat to land, adding, “It will remain over the open sea.” There are no watches or coastal warnings in effect associated with it.
But she said that people who live along Mexico’s coastal areas should monitor the storm and keep an eye out for updates from their local meteorological offices, “because it can generate currents.” offshore and dangerous beach conditions.”
When a hurricane forms in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, it usually moves westward, meaning Atlantic hurricanes often pose a greater threat to North America. When a hurricane forms near land in the Pacific, it can bring damaging winds and rain before moving out to sea.
However, an air mass can sometimes block a storm, pushing it north or northeast toward the Baja California peninsula and other areas of the west coast of Mexico. Occasionally, a storm can move further north, as was the case last year with Post-tropical cyclone Kaybrought strong winds and intense rain to Southern California.
Some Pacific hurricanes even moved over the US mainland; In 1997, Hurricane Nora made landfall in Baja California before moving inland and to Arizona like a tropical storm.
Hurricane season in the eastern Pacific begins on May 15, two weeks before the Atlantic hurricane season begins. Both seasons run until November 30.
The complexities in the Pacific this year are the development of El NinoLarge-scale, intermittent weather patterns can have widespread effects on weather around the world.
In the Pacific, El Niño reduces changes in wind speed and direction known as wind shear. The instability of wind shear often helps prevent storm formation, so a reduction increases the chance for hurricanes. (In the Atlantic, El Niño had the opposite effect.)
Hawaii is located in the central Pacific Ocean but is sometimes affected by hurricanes that form on its east side. However, it is unusual for a named storm to make landfall on Hawaii, given the small land area and split between several islands. The last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii was Iniki, 1992. In 2020, Hurricane Douglas generates damaging winds that do not directly affect the state.
On average, the eastern Pacific hurricane season produces 15 named storms, eight of those storms and four becoming major hurricanes with winds reaching 111 mph. The Central Pacific typically sees four to five named storms develop or move across the basin annually.
There is a firm consensus among scientists that The storm is getting stronger because of climate change. While there may not be more named storms overall, the likelihood of major hurricanes is increasing.
Climate change is also affecting how much rain storms can produce. In a warming world, the air can hold more moisture, which means that a named storm could bring more rain, like Hurricane Harvey happened in Texas in 2017, when some areas received more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours.
The researchers also found that hurricanes have slowed over the past few decades. As a storm slows down over water, the amount of moisture the storm can absorb increases. As the storm slows down over land, the amount of rain that falls on a location increases. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian slowed as it crawled over the northwestern Bahamas, resulting in a total storm rainfall of 22.84 inches in Hope Town.
