Erick shatters record as basin's earliest major hurricane landfall
The major hurricane struck Mexico east of Acapulco on Thursday morning
Hurricane Erick made history Thursday when it struck the western coast of Mexico as a major Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 205 km/h.
The storm, which rapidly intensified in the hours before landfall, is by far the earliest major hurricane on record to strike land in the eastern Pacific.
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The eastern Pacific hurricane season is off to a busy start. Erick is the basin’s fifth named storm, and it's the earliest “E” storm ever observed in the region.
Warm ocean waters, low wind shear, and ample moisture allowed Hurricane Erick to rapidly intensify as it approached the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Rapid intensification occurs when a storm’s maximum sustained winds jump at least 55 km/h in 24 hours.
Forecasters tracking Hurricane Erick saw its maximum sustained winds jump from 100 km/h at 3:00 a.m. Wednesday to 230 km/h by 11:40 p.m. Wednesday—more than doubling the criteria necessary for rapid intensification.
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The storm made landfall east of Acapulco early Thursday morning as a major Category 3 hurricane with 205 km/h winds. Folks across the region are still recovering from Hurricane Otis, which rapidly intensified into a scale-topping Category 5 storm before hitting Acapulco in October 2023.
Erick is the earliest major hurricane landfall ever observed along Mexico’s western shores since reliable records began in 1949. Previously, the only major hurricane to ever make landfall in the eastern Pacific between May and August was Hurricane Kiko in late August 1989, which hit east of Cabo San Lucas.