Pacific Hurricane May Form Soon

According to the National Hurricane Center "a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms located several hundred miles S-SW of Acapulco, Mexico" may evolve into a tropical depression by early next week. Depressions, by definition, have maximum sustained winds of less then 34 knots (7 on the Beaufort scale). Higher winds (34-63 knots) would designate a low pressure system as a "tropical storm." At 64 knots it would officially become a (category 1) hurricane.

We hope that doesn’t happen, especially since Latitude 38‘s mothership, Profligate, is currently heading north to San Diego, as are a number of other boats that have been cruising Mexican waters. (Profligate is currently just south of Cabo.)

NOAA predicts this system has a 40% chance of forming into a tropical cyclone, or hurricane, within the next 48 hours, and an 80% chance within the next five days, which could be bad news for Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and other coastal towns. We encourage mariners and coastal dwellers to keep an eye on this disturbance, but we hope it will fizzle before coming ashore, as many such systems do.

(A shoutout from Profligate via satphone this morning to the Gulfstar 50 Talion: "Are you out there Patsy? We’ll be on 4 Alpha at 8 a.m. California time.")