A red alert was activated this Tuesday by the authorities of western Mexico after the formation of tropical storm Marie off the coast of Colima, the thirteenth cyclone of the season in the eastern Pacific that threatens to intensify drastically in the coming hours and become a hurricane.
In anticipation of the storm's imminent arrival, the federal government and state civil protection agencies implemented continuous monitoring operations and reinforced emergency protocols in at-risk areas. Authorities urged the public and the maritime community to take extreme precautions given the forecast of heavy rainfall, severe wind gusts, and high waves along the Pacific coast.
The National Weather Service indicated that the center of the phenomenon was located 645 kilometers southwest of Manzanillo, registering maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour and gusts of 95 kilometers per hour with movement towards the northwest.
Projected trajectory and intensification forecast
Scientific prediction models indicate that Marie will rapidly evolve into hurricane categories one or two between Wednesday and Thursday, reaching destructive winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour.
Although its projected trajectory maintains a line of gradual separation from the continental territory towards the south of Baja California Sur, its broad circulation generates heavy to very heavy rains in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán.
This weather event is part of a particularly active season predicted for this year, during which Mexico anticipates the formation of up to twenty-one named cyclones in the Pacific, with a marked predominance of high-intensity systems influenced by global weather conditions.
