Hurricane Adrian Strengthens, New Tropical Depression Brings Rain to Mexico’s Pacific Coast

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Hurricane Adrian gained strength Thursday far off Mexico’s Pacific coast, but father south and closer to land, a new tropical depression has formed that has forecasters much more worried.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Adrian had sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). The storm was expected to weaken again to a tropical storm by the weekend and keep heading out to sea.

On Thursday morning, the hurricane’s center was about 440 miles (710 kilometers) west-southwest of the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo, Mexico. The hurricane center said Adrian was moving west-northwest at about 8 mph (13 kph), and that general motion was expected to continue.

But farther south, Tropical Depression Two-E was expected to build in strength and become the second tropical storm, and perhaps hurricane, of the eastern Pacific season.

Mexico’s National Meteorological Service said the depression was expected to bring torrential rains to the coasts of the impoverished southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas, and said the rains “could cause rising levels in streams and rivers, landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.”

The depression had winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and could become a tropical storm Friday and a hurricane by the weekend,as it skims along just offshore of Mexico’s western Pacific coast.

The depression was located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the coastal town of Puerto Angel and was moving northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).