Mexico City, Sep 10 (EFE).- Tropical storm Francine, which could become a hurricane on Tuesday, will bring rain and high waves to Tamaulipas, a state on Mexico’s northeastern border, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned.
“Tropical storm Francine will bring rain, wind, waves and conditions for waterspouts in northeastern Mexico; it could intensify into a hurricane during the day,” the National Water Commission (Conagua) said in a bulletin.
The center of the cyclone, which is not expected to touch Mexican territory and is heading toward the United States, was, according to the latest report, 155 kilometers east of Boca de Catán, Tamaulipas, and 200 kilometers southeast of the mouth of the Rio Bravo or Grande, on the border between Mexico and the United States.
The storm has sustained maximum winds of 100 kilometers per hour, gusts of 120 kilometers per hour and is moving north at 7 kilometers per hour, the warning said.
“The surveillance zone for tropical storm effects is maintained from Barra del Tordo to La Pesca, Tamaulipas, and a prevention zone for tropical storm effects was established from La Pesca to the mouth of the Rio Grande,” the SMN added.
Francine is the sixth named system of the season in the Atlantic Ocean.
Mexican authorities last May predicted up to 41 named cyclones in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, of which at least five would hit the country, a figure above average in both cases.
So far, three cyclones have hit Mexico, all in the Atlantic: Hurricane Beryl and Storm Chris, which left no deaths in July, and Storm Alberto in June, when it left six dead in Nuevo León, a state on Mexico’s northern border.
