Spanish
Mexico City, July 1 (EFE).- Hurricane Flossie, which formed in the Pacific Ocean, continues to strengthen and will evolve this Tuesday into a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and, in combination with low-pressure channels, will maintain torrential rains in Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero, reported the National Meteorological Service (SMN).
In its most recent report, the SMN specified that at 06:00 local time (12:00 GMT), Flossie, which is moving parallel to the coasts of Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, was located approximately 250 kilometers south-southwest of Manzanillo, Colima.
In addition, it records maximum sustained winds of 145 kilometers per hour (km/h), gusts of 175 km/h and movement towards the west-northwest at 17 km/h.
"Its extensive circulation and cloud bands will cause intense to torrential punctual rains" (from 75 to 150 mm) in southern Tamaulipas; in the sierra and south of Sinaloa, in the north, sierra and south of Nayarit; in the west, coast and south of Jalisco and in southwestern Guerrero.
While it will cause heavy rains with very strong punctual ones, from 50 to 75 mm, in Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Puebla, Veracruz and Oaxaca.
Showers will also be maintained with locally heavy rains, from 25 to 50 mm, in Coahuila, Querétaro, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo and intervals of showers, from 5 to 25 mm, in Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Morelos and Yucatán.
Likewise, it will cause winds of 100 to 120 km/h with gusts of 130 to 140 km/h on the coasts of Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco, along with winds of 40 to 50 km/h with gusts of 60 to 70 km/h on the coasts of western Guerrero.
In addition to winds of 20 to 30 km/h with gusts of 40 to 60 km/h in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, the coasts of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz and Tabasco, and in Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo; with possible dust storms in Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora.
It will also cause waves 5 to 6 meters high on the coasts of Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco; 3.5 to 4.5 meters high on the coasts of Guerrero; 1.5 to 2.5 meters high on the coasts of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.
"A prevention zone is maintained due to tropical storm wind effects from Punta San Telmo, Michoacán, to Playa Pérula, Jalisco; as well as a surveillance zone due to tropical storm wind effects from Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, to the east of Punta San Telmo, Michoacán, and from the north of Playa Pérula to Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco," indicated the SMN.
The agency explained that "heavy to locally torrential rains could increase the levels of rivers and streams, and generate waterlogging, landslides and floods. Strong wind gusts could cause trees and billboards to fall", and therefore urged the population to heed their warnings and follow the recommendations of Civil Protection.
The meteorological authorities predict up to 20 named cyclones in the Mexican Pacific; of which between four and six could be category 3, 4 and even 5. So far, six storms have formed in the Mexican Pacific: Alvin, Bárbara, Cosme, Laila, Erick and Flossie.
