While the western Atlantic has experienced a quiet start to the hurricane season, the eastern Pacific has recently become fairly active, producing a tropical storm and a category 4 hurricane within a few days.
The first and weaker of these systems, Tropical Storm Dalila, developed into a tropical storm late last week. Although this storm stayed off the coast of Mexico and was relatively weak to other storms that have developed in this region, Dalila brought flooding and mudslides to the resort town of Acapulco, in western Mexico.
On Tuesday, Hurricane Erick formed in the eastern Pacific, marking the fifth named storm in the region. Erick rapidly strengthened off the west coast of Mexico into a category 2 hurricane on Wednesday, before transitioning into a category 4 hurricane on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of about 140mph. Despite having been downgraded to category 3 by the time it made landfall over the state of Oaxaca, sustained wind speeds still reached almost 130mph, causing major disruption. Large waves were produced by Erick, with the popular surfing spot Puerto Escondido seeing waves breaking at over 20ft (about 6 metres).
Up to 400mm of rain is expected to fall through the course of the hurricane’s passing, bringing further flooding and landslides to areas that were already affected by Dalila late last week and earlier this week. Forecasts indicate the hurricanewill deintensify as it pushes north-westwards across mountainous terrain in Mexico.
The tropical eastern Pacific is expected to continue to be active through the rest of June, with potential development areas being watched by the National Hurricane Center. In contrast, the Atlantic is expected to remain quiet for a time, but is still forecast to produce an above-average number of storms and hurricanes.
Typhoon Wutip, which developed in the South China Sea last week as the first typhoon of the season, moved north-eastwards through south-east China last Sunday and Monday, resulting in the death of seven people. Although the system weakened to a remnant low soon after making landfall with China, it continued to bring flooding, with 70,000 people evacuated as Huaiji county was placed on its highest level of flood alert.
