Agatha will produce heavy rains in parts of southern Mexico Sunday through Tuesday night. Life-threatening flash floods and landslides can occur in Oaxaca, Chiapas and eastern parts of Guerrero. This NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Agatha off the Pacific coast of Oaxaca State, Mexico, this morning. Torrential rains and howling winds hit the palm trees and drove tourists and residents to shelters as Agatha entered a sparsely populated coastal region, except for a handful of small communities along the coast.
The civil defense agency of the state of Oaxaca showed families rushing into a shelter in Pochutla and a slide of rocks and mud that blocked the road between that city and the state capital. Agatha made landfall about 5 miles (10 kilometers) west of Puerto Ángel in the late afternoon as a strong Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph). But it quickly began to lose strength as it advanced inland. Late Monday, it was reduced to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph).
The National Hurricane Center said Agatha was expected to dissipate overnight, but warned that the system's heavy rains still posed a threat of dangerous flash floods. Earlier in the day, wind, heavy rain and big waves hit the coastal town of Zipolite, long known for its clothing-optional beach and bohemian atmosphere. In the surfing city of Puerto Escondido, people took refuge and laid plywood to prevent windows from breaking in strong winds. The government's Mexican Turtle Center, a former slaughterhouse turned conservation center in Mazunte, closed to visitors due to the hurricane.
Agatha was formed only on Sunday and quickly gained power. “It was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in May in the eastern Pacific,” said Jeff Masters, meteorologist at Yale Climate Connections and founder of Weather Underground. He said that hurricanes in the region typically start with tropical waves coming from the coast of Africa. The National Hurricane Center said Agatha could drop 10 to 16 inches (250 to 400 millimeters) of rain in parts of Oaxaca, with an isolated maximum of 20 inches (500 millimeters), posing the threat of flash floods and landslides.
He said smaller amounts could fall in adjacent states to the east and northeast. A hurricane alert was issued for parts of the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, where Agatha could make landfall on Tuesday. Meteorologists say Ida made landfall in Cuba like a hurricane and could turn into an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm with winds of 140 mph as it approaches the U. If the predictions are accurate, the new depression will develop in the Yucatan Peninsula, placing the cities of Cancun and Tulum in the midst of the storm.
The storm's outer rain bands moved over southern Mexico overnight, hours before Agatha was expected to bring threatening floods and landslides, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Agatha could make landfall near the force of the major hurricane Monday in the area near Puerto Escondido and Puerto Ángel in the southern state of Oaxaca, a region that includes the laid-back resorts of Huatulco, Mazunte and Zipolite. Because the current trajectory of the storm would carry it over the narrow waist of the isthmus of Mexico, the hurricane center said there was a possibility that debris from the storm could re-emerge over the Gulf of Mexico. If a hurricane hit the Mexican Caribbean directly, visitors would have to wait for severe delays in returning home, possibly weeks, while governments dealt with infrastructure damage and other logistical formalities.
If it crosses the coast with maximum sustained winds of at least 100 mph (current forecast is for 110 mph winds), it would become the strongest storm hitting land this early in the season from the eastern Pacific, wrote Jeff Masters, meteorologist and hurricane specialist at Yale Climate Connections. The Atlantic hurricane season, the term used for storms that form in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, runs from June 1 to November. There is a hurricane alert in place between Salina Cruz and Lagunas de Chacahua, Mexico, with hurricane and tropical storm warnings spanning stretches of the coast on both sides. The government's Mexican Turtle Center, a former slaughterhouse turned conservation center in Mazunte, announced it was closed to visitors until further notice due to the hurricane.
Hurricane warnings are in effect in Mexico's state of Oaxaca, where fast-strengthening Hurricane Agatha is expected to make landfall on Monday near the city of Mazunte. Storms originating in the eastern Pacific usually don't arrive in the United States as hurricanes, said Dennis Feltgen, meteorologist and spokesman for the Hurricane Center on Saturday. Hurricane season officially begins June 1 in the Atlantic, and long-range forecasters are sounding the alarm about an anticipated seventh consecutive hurricane season. National Hurricane Center Forecasts Hurricane Agatha Will Make Landfall in Oaxaca, Mexico, This Afternoon or Evening, Probably as a Category 2 Storm.
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