Hurricane “Lidia” made landfall in Mexico with great force. The center of the storm, with a strength of four out of five on the hurricane scale, reached the Pacific coast in the town of Las Peñitas, 55 kilometers southwest of the holiday resort of Puerto Vallarta, with sustained wind speeds of up to 220 kilometers per hour, as the Mexican weather service announced in the afternoon (local time). There were initially no reports of possible victims or damage.
According to the US Hurricane Center in Miami, “Lidia” had developed into an “extremely dangerous” hurricane just off the coast. In the affected areas in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit, schools will be canceled until Wednesday, local authorities said.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on residents of the region to seek safety and stay away from low-lying areas and rivers. Soldiers and civil defense officials are on duty, López Obrador wrote on the online platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Mexican Meteorological Service warned of very heavy rainfall in the states of Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán and Nayarit. Waves up to nine meters high can be expected on the coast.
Hurricane season begins on May 15th in the Pacific and June 1st in the Atlantic. It ends on November 30th in both regions. Tropical cyclones form over warm ocean water. Increasing global warming increases the likelihood of strong storms. A hurricane is defined as a wind speed of 119 kilometers per hour.
