First hurricane of season forms off Mexico's Pacific coast

by AFP Staff Writers Mexico City (AFP) June 9, 2025 AFP

The first hurricane of the eastern Pacific season formed Monday off the coast of Mexico, but was expected to dissipate without hitting land, forecasters said.

At 2100 GMT, Barbara was located around 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the port of Manzanillo, packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 75 miles an hour, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Rated Category 1, the lowest on a scale of five, the storm was expected to move toward the northwest away from land and begin weakening on Monday night, it said.

"The system is forecast to become a remnant low by Wednesday," the NHC predicted.

Mexico's meteorological service warned of heavy rains in coastal areas of the western states of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacan.

Another storm, named Cosme, was gathering strength further out in the Pacific and could also become a hurricane, though it was not expected to make landfall, the NHC said.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November.

In October 2023, Hurricane Otis, a scale-topping Category 5 storm, left a trail of destruction and dozens dead after slamming into the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco.