Hurricane Blas lurks near southern Mexico
The Eastern Pacific hurricane season officially began on May 15, and since then, one destructive storm roared to life in the basin. Much of the eastern Pacific Ocean had been devoid of troubling tropical features since Hurricane Agatha's prolific landfall in late May, but that has since changed with the formation of Hurricane Blas.
AccuWeather's tropical forecasters first identified an area for potential tropical development south of Mexico during the first weekend of June and have been closely monitoring future development in the days since. The National Hurricane Center designated the disturbance as Tropical Depression 2-E early Tuesday morning, before upgrading the system to a tropical storm around 11 a.m. EDT.
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Category 1 Hurricane Blas can be seen south of Mexico in this image captured on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (GOES-East/NOAA) |
The system was upgraded to a hurricane Wednesday morning with the 11 a.m. EDT update as winds increased to 75 mph. Conditions are expected to support gradual strengthening through Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, local time, forecasters expect that Blas will intensify further to a Category 2 hurricane.
Forecasters expect the tropical storm to take a track to the northwest through the week, generally paralleling the southwest coast of Mexico.
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"The storm is expected to remain far enough offshore that the core of heaviest rain and strongest wind will remain across the eastern Pacific," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said.
Mexico's southwestern coast may experience an uptick in downpours, as well as dangerous surf and rip currents, through the week as the storm sweeps by to the south.
"Shipping interests in the vicinity of the storm should be prepared for rough seas," Douty said.
The storm is expected to track across cooler water late this week and weekend and lose wind intensity while moving near Socorro and the Revillagigedo Islands.
AccuWeather meteorologists are monitoring the potential for tropical moisture from the storm to be pulled northward and help to enhance the start of the North American monsoon season in the Southwest.
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There is a medium chance for a second tropical system to evolve over the eastern Pacific late this week or this weekend. The area where conditions will be favorable for thunderstorms to coalesce during that time will be farther to the southeast, just south of Central America. The next name on the list of eastern Pacific storms for 2022 is Celia.
Additionally, forecasters say another tropical system can bubble to life in a similar area of interest late this week. Right next door in the Atlantic basin, AccuWeather forecasters are also keeping a close eye on a zone in the western Caribbean Sea for potential development into the weekend. However, that system may not organize enough to draw a name before moving inland over Central America.
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