2023-10-25 01:24:53
Mexico once again exposed to large-scale climatic phenomena. A new Category 3 hurricane, driven by winds exceeding 200 km/h, threatens Acapulco, the tourist capital of the Pacific on the west coast of Mexico, the American National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Tuesday.
The NHC fears “an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane” when it makes landfall. Named Otis, the hurricane was located at 9 p.m. GMT in the Pacific Ocean, 185 km south of Acapulco.
A powerful hurricane, named Norma, hit Mexico last week. Last Thursday, Norma had strengthened, reaching category 4 out of the 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 250 km/h. It was then downgraded to category 3. And two weeks before Norma, western Mexico was hit by another powerful hurricane, Lidia, which left two dead in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit.
With its long coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides, Mexico is regularly exposed to hurricanes that form offshore. A dozen depressions per year are likely to turn into more or less devastating hurricanes depending on their point of entry.
The most powerful ever recorded, Patricia, in October 2015, with winds of 325 km/h, however, only caused material damage because it entered the territory through an uninhabited mountainous area. Storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms with climate change, scientists say.
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