Hurricane Kay intensifies to category 2 and threatens the Baja California peninsula in the Mexican Pacific

By Edward Era Barbacena

This Wednesday morning, September 7 Hurricane Kay intensified to category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale and continues its advance through the Mexican Pacific with sustained winds of 155 kilometers per hour and gusts of 195 km/h, reported the National Meteorological Service (SMN).

“At 4: 00 hours, central Mexico time, its center was located approximately 550 kilometers southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, and 670 kilometers west of Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, and moves north-northwest to 19 kilometers“, indicated the agency.

The Mexican agency predicts that Kay’s cloud bands will cause “torrential” rains, from 150 to 250 millimeters, in areas of Baja California Sur; “very strong”, from 50 to 75 millimeters, in Sinaloa, and “strong”, of 25 a 50 millimeters, in Baja California and Sonora.

Gusts of wind of 120 a 150 kilometers per hour in Baja California Sur; from 80 to 100 kilometers per hour in Baja California, the Gulf of California and the coasts of Sinaloa and Sonora, and 60 a 80 kilometers per hour on the coasts of Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit.

“Due to its proximity to the Baja California Peninsula the prevention zone for hurricane effects extends from the north of Punta Abreojos, Baja California South, to San José de las Palomas, Baja California“, reported the SMN.

The Mexican meteorological authorities ask for extreme precautions in the presence of torrential rains in at least 7 states of the country, as well as possible landslides and floods.

At a press conference, Alejandra Méndez, general coordinator of the National Meteorological Service, warned of the possibility that Hurricane Kay could reach category 3 in the next hours.

“The possibility that Hurricane Kay will reach category 3 with winds from 178 to 208 kilometers per hour (km/h) this Wednesday during his journey”, he pointed out.

Within states where Hurricane Kay is generating torrential rains in Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas.

Kay is the twelfth tropical storm that forms in the Mexican Pacific during 2022, after Agatha, Blas, Celia, Bonnie, Darby, Estelle, Frank, Georgette, Howard, Ivette and Javier.