Formed 470 miles off the coast of Manzanillo on Wednesday, and moving northwestward toward Baja California, category three Hurricane Hilary was expected to bring 70 to 90 kilometer-per-hour wind gusts and waves of between four and six meters to the Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco coastlines.
The hurricane was expected to reach category four at around 3 a.m. on Friday, August 18, according to a public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center. The agency said “large swells generated by Hilary will affect portions of the coast of southwestern Mexico and the Baja California peninsula over the next few day and ... are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
The Mexican Meteorological Service (SMN) said that as of Thursday afternoon Hilary was located around 400 kilometers southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco. The hurricane is expected to weaken before making landfall Sunday somewhere on the Baja California peninsula, where the SMN has issued a tropical storm warning.
According to the New York Times, Hilary’s uncertain trajectory opens the possibility that it could alternatively make primary landfall in California, something that rarely happens during the Pacific hurricane season.