Rachel weakens far off Baja as new system brews near Mexico
Hurricane Rachel, a Category 1 storm with 90 mph winds, was about 540 miles off the tip of Baja California late Monday and heading out to sea. Mexico says it poses no danger. Closer to land, a low off southern Mexico has an 80% chance of becoming a tropical depression within two days.
Hurricane Rachel is fading over open water, but the eastern Pacific is not done. Late Monday, Rachel had top winds of 90 mph and was moving west at about 9 mph, roughly 870 kilometers, or 540 miles, west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico's weather service said.
The storm is losing its punch. "The visible satellite presentation for Rachel has become far less impressive than it was earlier today," National Hurricane Center forecasters wrote Monday evening. Its eye was filling in. Rachel is heading into drier air and much cooler water, which should keep weakening it.
The hurricane center expects Rachel to drop to tropical storm strength by Thursday. Late in the week, a weakening high-pressure system should let it slow down and turn northeast. The center's forecast has it becoming post-tropical by the weekend.
Mexico says the storm is no threat. Because of its distance and path, Rachel "does not represent a danger to the national territory," Mexico's National Meteorological Service said in a statement translated from Spanish, according to Tribuna de México. Weekend swells along the Baja California Peninsula have eased, and no special warnings were issued for residents or boaters.
A new system needs watching. A broad area of low pressure off southern Mexico, tagged 92E, is producing scattered showers and storms. Conditions favor slow growth, and a tropical depression is likely in the next couple of days as it drifts west-northwest or northwest, the hurricane center said. It gives the system an 80% chance of forming in 48 hours and 90% over seven days. People along the coast of southwestern Mexico should keep an eye on it.
In the central Pacific near Hawaii, no storms are expected to form over the next seven days.
On the Atlantic side, forecasters are also watching a system in the Gulf that could become Tropical Storm Isaias later this week.
Get updates at the National Hurricane Center website, nhc.noaa.gov.
What we know: Rachel is weakening far from land, and 92E is likely to become a depression off southern Mexico.
What we don't: Where 92E will track and whether it will threaten the coast.
Where outlets agree The National Hurricane Center and Mexico's weather service, via Tribuna de México, both place Rachel near 20.4 north, 117.9 west with 90 mph winds, moving west away from land.
Where they differ Mexico's weather service says Rachel poses no danger to Mexico, but the hurricane center expects it to slow and turn northeast late in the week, so its final path is not settled.