The National Hurricane Center said that Hurricane Agatha, the first named storm in the eastern Pacific this year, intensified rapidly on Sunday, packing winds of up to 110 miles per hour and heavy rains that threaten to unleash potentially fatal floods and mudslides when it makes landfall in Mexico on Monday.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Agatha, the first named storm of the eastern Pacific season, is predicted to grow to a Category 3 hurricane on Monday, bringing a “very severe storm surge and life-threatening winds” to southern Mexico.
On Sunday, Agatha was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 2 hurricane, with sustained winds above the Category 2 hurricane threshold. Before it approaches the coast of southern Mexico on Monday afternoon or evening, forecasters expect it to become a “major hurricane,” with maximum sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Agatha, the first named storm of the eastern Pacific season, is predicted to grow to a Category 3 hurricane on Monday, bringing a “very severe storm surge and life-threatening winds” to southern Mexico.
According to the center, the Mexican state of Oaxaca could receive up to 16 inches of rain, with isolated quantities exceeding 20 inches.
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President Joe Biden implored Americans earlier this month to pay attention to hurricane warnings and obey local officials’ instructions.
“We are aware that hurricanes are on their way. So far, they’ve become more extreme with each passing season “During a press briefing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Biden remarked.
He continued, ” “Given the climate problem, we should predict a particularly bad hurricane season this year. Storms will be more powerful, and we will have less warning time, as we experienced with Hurricane Ida last year.”
The storm is in “near optimal environmental circumstances” for intensification, according to the National Hurricane Center, as it passes over very warm ocean waters, which assist fuel storms, and will encounter a dearth of hostile upper-level winds, which could hamper thunderstorm formation. Rapid intensification, defined as an increase in wind speed of at least 35 mph in 24 hours, is “a distinct probability” over the next day, according to the Hurricane Center.
Despite the fact that much of the tropical Pacific Ocean is cooler than normal due to La Nia, Agatha is passing over a small area of warmer-than-normal water, which could help it strengthen. Warming waters induced by human-generated climate change are boosting the potential for tropical storms and hurricanes to swiftly strengthen, according to scientists.
The agency issued a hurricane warning for around 160 miles of the Oaxacan coast, from Santa Cruz to the Lagunas de Chacahua National Park, indicating that life and property should be protected as soon as possible.
