Hurricane Lidia makes landfall in Mexico

Hurricane Lidia reached land Tuesday evening as a Category 4 storm in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. The state is sparsely populated, but the Pacific coast resort town of Puerto Vallarta is near where the hurricane landed. The storm has produced “extraordinary rain and high surf,” according to a social media post by Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro. As of Thursday morning, two people were reported dead due to the storm. Hurricane winds were at 140 mph when the storm first landed.

What’s the path of the hurricane? After landfall, the hurricane moved south of Puerto Vallarta, about 30 miles inland. Over Tuesday night, the hurricane moved east-northeast at 17 mph and continued its trajectory through Wednesday morning. Overnight winds dropped to roughly 70 mph, and Lidia weakened into a tropical storm. Lidia is expected to weaken further as it crosses central Mexico. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Myrna Brown’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s annual Disaster Relief Fund is running out.