At least 1 dead after Hurricane Lidia hits Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as a Category 4 storm

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read
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Hurricane Lidia made landfall as a Category 4 storm Tuesday evening near the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast and quickly dissipated Wednesday morning over the nation's mountainous terrain. One person was killed by a falling tree and two others injured near Puerto Vallarta.

Although the storm had officially dissipated, "heavy rainfall and flooding was expected to continue over portions of western Mexico," the National Hurricane Center said in an early Wednesday morning forecast.

The hurricane had winds of 140 mph when it reached land near Las Penitas in the western state of Jalisco. Lidia then moved inland and was about 145 miles north-northeast of Guadalajara, Mexico, as of Wednesday morning.

Several homes around the landfall area had their roofs blown off, and the Puerto Vallarta city government said about a dozen trees had been knocked down there.

This satellite image provided by NOAA at 8 a.m EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, shows Hurricane Lidia in the Pacific Ocean approaching Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
This satellite image provided by NOAA at 8 a.m EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, shows Hurricane Lidia in the Pacific Ocean approaching Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Lidia intensified rapidly

The storm's winds powered up faster than expected: “Lidia's top sustained winds increased more than predicted, and in spectacular fashion – from 70 mph to 140 mph in the 24 hours before it made landfall," said meteorologist Robert Henson on X.

This more than meets the definition of a "rapidly intensifying" storm: The phenomenon is typically defined to be a tropical cyclone (whether a tropical storm or hurricane) intensifying by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period.

"A growing body of research is finding links between rapid intensification and human-caused climate change,” Henson said.

Lidia was also the third-strongest hurricane in history to make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Storm preparations

Local authorities had cancelled classes in communities around the coast as the storm approached. The state of Jalisco opened 23 shelters and the Puerto Vallarta city government said a few dozen people sought shelter there.

The impact came one day after Tropical Storm Max hit the southern Pacific coast, hundreds of miles away, and then dissipated.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Lidia hit near resorts in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico