(Mexico City) Hurricane Roslyn strengthened as it moved into category 4 on Saturday off the Pacific coast of Mexico, the US weather services said.
Posted at 12:42 p.m.
Updated at 1:04 p.m.
At 11 a.m. (10 a.m. local in Mexico), the weather phenomenon was accompanied by sustained winds of 215 km/h and although it could lose strength as it approaches the coast, “it is expected that it will either approach or continue to be a major hurricane when it makes landfall on Sunday,” reads a bulletin from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
A hurricane is considered major when it exceeds category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which has 5, and is synonymous with possible catastrophe.
According to the NHC forecast, Roslyn could make landfall on Sunday morning on the coast of Nayarit state in an area of fishing communities.
The passage of the hurricane will affect other states on the Pacific coast, mainly Jalisco, Colima (west) and Sinaloa (northwest) where a pre-hurricane warning has been issued.
Saturday morning, Roslynwhich was 240 km from the port of Manzanillo (west), strengthened rapidly while moving in a north/northwest direction at a speed of 13 km/h.
Tropical cyclones hit Mexico every year, usually from May to November, on its Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
In October 1997, more than 200 people were killed during the passage of the hurricane Paulinacategory 4, on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
At the end of May, Agathathe first cyclone of the season in the Pacific caused the death of 11 people in the state of Oaxaca in mountainous localities hit by rains.