Happy Nice Mall

Tropical Storm Agatha, the first storm to be named in the eastern Pacific this year, is speeding towards the coast of Mexico, triggering life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides that have the potential to become a hurricane. said the National Hurricane Center Saturday.

Agatha could make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour on Monday, Hurricane Center spokesman and meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said on Saturday.

Agatha was en route to the largely rural Mexican state of Oaxaca and was expected to dissipate Wednesday morning. A hurricane watch was sent for the southern coast of Mexico, from Salina Cruz to Punta Maldonado.

Mr. Feltgen said storms originating from the eastern Pacific generally do not reach the United States as hurricanes. The same goes for Agatha, he said, but added that if the storm “survives its voyage in Mexico, then its remnants may end up in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Agatha was founded on the coast of Mexico and selected on SaturdayShortly after the official start of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30.

Atlantic hurricane season – the term for storms that form in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean – is from June 1 to November 30. These areas make up the most severe hurricanes to hit the United States, Mr. Feltgen said.

This year, for the first time since 2014, a hurricane did not form in the Atlantic before the official start of the season. However, the season usually doesn’t peak from mid-August to late October, and forecasters guess above-average Atlantic activity this year, with six to 10 hurricanes and three to six major hurricanes The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this week.

If the forecast comes true, this will be the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season this year.

Causes of the estimated intensity of hurricanes cited by NOAA include the climate pattern known as La Niña, which affects wind speed and direction, and a particularly intense West African monsoon season that produces waves that can lead to strong and long-lasting waves. hurricanes.