Dangerous Hurricane Rick Heads for Mexico’s Baja California

Hurricane Rick, a “dangerous” system with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (125 miles) an hour, headed for the Baja California peninsula, where the Mexican government issued a hurricane watch. The storm’s winds weakened from 230 kilometers an hour yesterday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said today on its Web site at about 4:30 a.m. Miami time. Two days ago, Rick’s 285 kph winds made it the second-strongest eastern north Pacific hurricane on record, behind 1997’s Linda. The hurricane was located about 615 kilometers south- southwest of Cabo San Lucas, a beach resort at Baja’s southern tip. Rick was moving northwest at 17 kilometers an hour, and forecast to turn toward the north and slow.
“On the forecast track, the center of the hurricane will be nearing southern Baja California by late Tuesday or early Wednesday,” the center said. “Rick is still expected to be a dangerous hurricane as it approaches the southern Baja peninsula.”
Rick is forecast to pass over Baja before slamming into mainland Mexico about a day later. Mexico’s government placed a hurricane watch on Baja California from the southern tip northward to Santa Fe on the west coast and San Evaristo on the east coast.
Rick is currently a Category 3 hurricane on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity. Two days ago, it was a maximum Category 5 storm. The U.S. center forecasts the system’s winds to dip below “major” hurricane status — or below 178 kilometers an hour — while remaining at hurricane strength, with winds of at least 119 kilometers an hour, as it hits Baja.