Rick degrades to a tropical storm as he passes through Mexico

October 25, 2021

2 minutes read

Hours after having touched Mexican lands as a powerful category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Rick was degraded to a tropical storm as it passed through Michoacán, in western Mexico, according to the National Meteorological Service (SNM) this Monday.

“Downtown Rick, now like a tropical storm, It is located on land over the municipality of Peribán, Michoacán. Its cloud bands cause very strong rains at extraordinary points, strong winds and high waves in western and southern states ”, indicated the SMN in a notice.

The cyclone first made landfall in the early morning in the state of Guerrero and hours later it was downgraded to a hurricane category 1.

At 1:00 p.m. local time, the phenomenon was on the ground 50 kilometers west of Uruapan, Michoacán, and 170 kilometers north of Lázaro Cárdenas, in the same state, according to the SMN.

The storm was moving north at 17 kilometers per hour with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 110 kilometers per hour.

In Michoacán and Guerrero, the Meteorological Office warned of winds with gusts of 80 to 100 kilometers per hour and waves of three to five meters high on the coast.

Likewise, the report predicted “extraordinary punctual” rains in Michoacán and Guerrero, as well as “very strong” in Jalisco, Colima and Guanajuato, and “strong” in Nayarit and the State of Mexico.

“The rains produced by the system could generate an increase in the levels of rivers and streams, landslides and floods in areas of Michoacán and Guerrero ”, warned the SMN.

The storm left 97,950 users in Guerrero and Michoacán without power, of which the service has already been restored to 25% of the total affected users, according to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

Civil Protection of Michoacán reported minor damages such as tree falls, power outages and increased river levels, particularly in the city of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Meanwhile, Civil Protection of Guerrero reported a cut on the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway due to flooding, the overflow of the Petatlán River and a landslide in the Juluchuca bridge.

Civil Protection of Mexico in the last hours put 11 states of Mexico and 712 municipalities on alert for Hurricane Rick, placing the states of Guerrero and Michoacán in “maximum danger”.

This year in the Pacific Ocean the cyclones Andrés, Blanca, Carlos, Dolores, Enrique, Felicia, Guillermo, Hilda, Ignacio, Jimena, Kevin, Linda, Marty, Nora, Olaf, Pamela and Rick have formed.

Dolores made landfall in mid-June and left three dead from thunderstorms.

In the Atlantic, where a score of named cyclones have already been recorded, the most devastating has been Grace, who in August left a total of 11 dead, eight in the state of Veracruz and three in Puebla.

While Nora, who made landfall on August 28, caused the death of a minor in the state of Jalisco and seven disappeared, six of them fishermen from the state of Guerrero.

On October 13, Cyclone Pamela impacted as a category 1 hurricane in the state of Sinaloa, in the Mexican Pacific, where after its passage left 2,000 families affected, in addition to 9,000 victims in the neighboring state of Nayarit and material damage, especially in the electrical network.