Mexico braces for a double whammy
Tropical storm could threaten tourist areas
A strengthening tropical system in the Caribbean threatens to slam into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and could intensify into a hurricane to deliver another blow to the country’s east coast later this week.
The National Hurricane Center said a tropical depression or storm probably will form in the northwestern Caribbean Sea on Monday or Tuesday before it reaches the Yucatán Peninsula.
Areas at risk include the tourist resorts of Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel.
The United States should not be directly affected by the system, although parts of the Texas Gulf Coast could see high surf and dangerous rip currents later this week, the Weather Channel said.
Tropical storm warnings were issued Sunday for most of the Yucatán coast, and portions of Belize were under a tropical storm watch.
Up to a foot of rain is possible, which “could produce life-threat- ening flash floods,” the hurricane center said.
The system “will spread drenching rain squalls across Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula,” AccuWeather said. The weather service also warned of sporadic power outages.
The storm is forecast to move across the Yucatán and into the Bay of Campeche, where it could reach hurricane strength before hitting the eastern coast of Mexico Wednesday night or Thursday.
One forecast indicates the hurricane could become a Category 3 storm, with winds at least 111 mph, as it nears Mexico.
Areas from Veracruz to near Tampico could see flooding rain, damaging winds and an inundating storm surge, AccuWeather said.
The tropical storm will be named Franklin once the winds reach 39 mph. It becomes a hurricane when its sustained winds are 74 mph.
A separate tropical system, now spinning in the central Atlantic more than 1,000 miles from the Caribbean, has a 50% chance of developing into a named storm over the next five days, the hurricane center said.
The system may bring rain and wind to the islands of the eastern Caribbean later this week, but it’s too soon to forecast beyond that, the Weather Channel said.
Areas at risk on the Yucatán Peninsula include the tourist resorts of Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel.