Tropical Storm Chris formed off the eastern coast of Mexico late Sunday, hours before it was expected to make landfall.
Chris is the third named storm in an already active Atlantic hurricane season. Also on Sunday night, Hurricane Beryl was entering the Caribbean as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane. That prompted emergency preparations across the Windward Islands, southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela.
Chris’s maximum sustained winds were around 40 miles per hour on Sunday night, more than 30 m.p.h. below hurricane strength, according to the National Hurricane Center. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the eastern coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo down to Puerto Veracruz, east of Mexico City.
Chris was expected to weaken after landfall and to dissipate later in the day, the Hurricane Center said. But it warned that the storm could bring four to eight inches of rain to areas of eastern Mexico through Monday, and that flooding and mudslides were possible.
Chris was expected to make landfall in Mexico about 150 miles south of where Tropical Storm Alberto did on June 20. Alberto unleashed heavy rain, flooding and gusty winds. The authorities said that at least four people died in events related to that storm.
This hurricane season was expected to be busy.
Forecasters have warned that the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season could be much more active than usual.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 25 named storms this year, an “above-normal” number and a prediction in line with more than a dozen forecasts earlier in the year from experts at universities, private companies and government agencies. Hurricane seasons produce 14 named storms, on average.
The seasonal hurricane outlooks were notably aggressive because forecasters looking at the start of the season saw a combination of circumstances that didn’t exist in records dating back to the mid-1800s: record warm water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the potential formation of the weather pattern known as La Niña.
La Niña occurs in the Pacific because of changing ocean temperatures, and it affects weather patterns globally. When it is strong, it typically provides a calm environment in the Atlantic; this allows storms to develop more easily and to strengthen without interference from wind patterns that might otherwise keep them from organizing.
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