At this point, it feels like somebody hit the hyperdrive button on the Pacific.
Hot on the heels of record-smashing Hurricane Polo, and with powerful Hurricane Nolo still spinning southwest of Hawaii, Tropical Storm Rachel has formed off Mexico — and forecasters expect yet another hurricane within days.
As of midday Monday, the National Hurricane Center placed Rachel about 225 miles south-southwest of Acapulco, packing sustained winds of 50 mph and moving west-northwest at 8 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds already extend as far as 160 miles from its center. NHC forecasters say “gradual strengthening is expected,” with Rachel forecast to become a hurricane by midweek.
Rachel should remain offshore while paralleling southwestern Mexico, but that doesn’t mean the coast escapes. Tropical storm warnings stretch from Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula, with watches extending north toward Cabo Corrientes.
Forecasters expect 3 to 6 inches of rain, locally 8 inches, across Guerrero, Michoacán and Colima, potentially producing flooding and mudslides. Rachel-generated swell is also expected to create “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
And Rachel is arriving before Polo is finished.
Related: Watch: Hurricane Polo Sends Gigantic Waves to Cabo San Lucas Arch
Polo, which peaked among the strongest eastern Pacific hurricanes ever observed, was still a 115-mph Category 3 Monday and bearing down on Baja California Sur. The NHC warned of 6 to 12 inches of rain, destructive waves, storm surge, and “life-threatening winds and flash floods,” before the storm crosses toward Sonora.
Meanwhile, Nolo has strengthened to 155 mph southwest of Hawaii. And somehow, there could be another one coming: the NHC gives a separate disturbance east-southeast of Hawaii a 90-percent chance of becoming a tropical depression.
So, back-to-back-to-back hurricanes?
Potentially.
NOAA says El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90-percent chance of becoming very strong this fall and winter. Even before Rachel formed, eastern Pacific accumulated cyclone energy was already running 68 percent above normal.
Rachel became the basin’s 17th named storm Sunday.
And September isn’t even over yet.
Buckle up, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Related: Hurricane Polo Is So Powerful People Are Asking About ‘Category 6’ (Video)
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