Hurricane Willa Becomes Category 5 Storm Off Coast of Mexico
- Warmer-than-normal Pacific waters egged on Willa’s growth
- Hurricane will likely weaken before it lands near Mazatlan
This satellite image shows Hurricane Willa in the eastern Pacific, on a path toward Mexico's Pacific coast on Oct. 22, 2018.
Photographer: NOAA via AP
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Pushed on by warm water, Hurricane Willa exploded from a tropical depression to a Category 5 hurricane in 54 hours, making it the third such storm in the eastern Pacific this year, tying records set in 1994 and 2002, said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground, an IBM company, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“It’s probably at its peak,” Masters said. As Willa approaches Mexico’s coast near Mazatlan, its structure could be torn up by both the mainland at its front and Baja California at the rear. “I do expect it to weaken rapidly because it’s going to have land on two sides.”