Tropical Storm Ernesto weakened as it moved across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with flooding rain on a path to the Bay of Campeche.
Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, closed two of its three largest oil-export terminals as the storm advanced. The center shifted Ernesto’s path southward, more over land, and dropped a forecast that the system would regain hurricane strength in the bay.
Ernesto’s top winds fell to 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour from 75 mph earlier as of 2 p.m. East Coast time, the National Hurricane Center said. Its center was 60 miles east of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, and it was traveling west at 13 mph, the Miami-based agency said in an advisory.
“Additional weakening is expected as Ernesto moves over land,” Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist, wrote in the agency’s forecast. “Some restrengthening is expected after the center moves back over the Bay of Campeche tonight.”
Ernesto went ashore overnight on the southern Yucatan coast as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph. Tropical storm- strength winds of 39 mph or more extend 160 miles from its core.
Pemex closed the Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas terminals, Mexico’s Merchant Marine, an agency of the Communications and Transportation Ministry, said today in its daily weather bulletin. The port of Coatzacoalcos remained open.
Cayo Arcas is the Mexico City-based company’s largest export terminal, followed by Coatzacoalcos and Dos Bocas. Mexico is the third-largest oil exporter to the U.S. and supplied 1.05 million barrels a day of crude in the week ended July 27, Energy Department data show.
A hurricane watch is in effect from Barra de Nautla to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, and a tropical storm warning extends from Celestun to Barra de Nautla.
As much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain may fall over the Yucatan, including Belize and northern Guatemala, and in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz, creating life- threatening flash floods and mudslides, the center said.
Ernesto is expected to go ashore a second time below Veracruz, Mexico, tomorrow as a tropical storm and then begin to break up as it enters the mountains there, according to the agency.
The hurricane center is tracking two other potential Atlantic storms. The first, the remnants of Tropical Storm Florence, has almost no chance of reforming in the next two days, while the second, about 700 miles west-southwest of Cape Verde, has a 30 percent chance.
In the Pacific off Mexico, Tropical Storm Gilma was nearing hurricane strength with 70 mph winds, the center said. It was 645 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, moving west and no danger to land, the NHC said.
A low-pressure system south of Gilma has a 40 percent chance of development.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at [email protected]; Rupert Rowling in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]
Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, closed two of its three largest oil-export terminals as the storm advanced. The center shifted Ernesto’s path southward, more over land, and dropped a forecast that the system would regain hurricane strength in the bay.
Ernesto’s top winds fell to 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour from 75 mph earlier as of 2 p.m. East Coast time, the National Hurricane Center said. Its center was 60 miles east of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, and it was traveling west at 13 mph, the Miami-based agency said in an advisory.
“Additional weakening is expected as Ernesto moves over land,” Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist, wrote in the agency’s forecast. “Some restrengthening is expected after the center moves back over the Bay of Campeche tonight.”
Ernesto went ashore overnight on the southern Yucatan coast as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph. Tropical storm- strength winds of 39 mph or more extend 160 miles from its core.
Pemex closed the Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas terminals, Mexico’s Merchant Marine, an agency of the Communications and Transportation Ministry, said today in its daily weather bulletin. The port of Coatzacoalcos remained open.
Cayo Arcas is the Mexico City-based company’s largest export terminal, followed by Coatzacoalcos and Dos Bocas. Mexico is the third-largest oil exporter to the U.S. and supplied 1.05 million barrels a day of crude in the week ended July 27, Energy Department data show.
A hurricane watch is in effect from Barra de Nautla to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, and a tropical storm warning extends from Celestun to Barra de Nautla.
As much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain may fall over the Yucatan, including Belize and northern Guatemala, and in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz, creating life- threatening flash floods and mudslides, the center said.
Ernesto is expected to go ashore a second time below Veracruz, Mexico, tomorrow as a tropical storm and then begin to break up as it enters the mountains there, according to the agency.
The hurricane center is tracking two other potential Atlantic storms. The first, the remnants of Tropical Storm Florence, has almost no chance of reforming in the next two days, while the second, about 700 miles west-southwest of Cape Verde, has a 30 percent chance.
In the Pacific off Mexico, Tropical Storm Gilma was nearing hurricane strength with 70 mph winds, the center said. It was 645 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, moving west and no danger to land, the NHC said.
A low-pressure system south of Gilma has a 40 percent chance of development.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at [email protected]; Rupert Rowling in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at [email protected]