(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Katia is expected to gain in strength and intensify into a hurricane in a couple of days before it approaches the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory on Wednesday.
Katia is about 175 miles (280 km) north of Veracruz and packing maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 km per hour), the NHC said.
The storm is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 cm) over northern Veracruz, and 2 to 5 inches over far southern Tamaulipas, northeast Puebla, and southern Veracruz through Saturday morning.
"This rainfall may cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain," said the NHC.
Katia is expected to reach the coastline of oil-producing Veracruz state sometime between Friday and Saturday as a category 1 hurricane, said the head of Mexico's water authority Conagua, Roberto Ramirez.
Category 1 is the weakest hurricane designation by the NHC, with sustained winds of up to 95 mph (153 kph).
"The movement is slow and erratic towards the southeast, at a speed of 7 kph (4.4 mph) because of its interaction with a cold front located in the north of the Gulf of Mexico," Ramirez told journalists.
State-owned oil firm Pemex's [PEMX.UL] installations in Veracruz were operating normally, the company said.
Five days of rain are forecast for most of Mexico's territory due to the effects of Katia, Hurricane Irma and Tropical Storm Jose, said Luis Felipe Puente, the head of Mexico's national emergency services.
Hurricane Irma hammered the Caribbean island of St. Martin on Wednesday as it packed a potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds and rain and surging surf that was expected to make landfall in Florida over the weekend.
(Reporting by Sharay Angulo; Additional reporting Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)
