Tropical Storm Kiko swirled along Mexico’s Pacific coast and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Saturday night, forecasters said on Friday.
A tropical-storm watch was issued for western Mexico from Punta San Telmo to Cabo Corrientes. Kiko had maximum sustained winds of 65km/h early on Friday and was located about 265km south-southwest of the resort of Manzanillo.
It was moving north-west at 6km/h and was projected to follow a path parallelling the coast of south-western Mexico and scraping the southern tip of the Baja peninsula.
”But it should be close enough to produce very heavy rain and strong winds,” said Eric Blake, a specialist at the United States National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida.
Forecasters said it would likely strengthen to a hurricane by Saturday just off Mexico’s coast. Up to 18cm of rain was expected in south-western Mexico.
”Life threatening flash floods and mudslides” were possible in mountainous areas, forecasters said.
The storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression late on Tuesday before regaining tropical-storm status on Wednesday. — Sapa-AP