On the heels of deadly Hurricane Otis, nervous eyes are on Tropical Storm Pilar. El Salvador already declared a State of National Emergency as the strengthening storm threatens the Pacific Coast of Central America with over a foot of rain, which could trigger mountain landslides.
“Coming up against the Pacific coast of Mexico, an oddball situation with Otis which turned into a deadly, destructive Category 5 at landfall,” said Meteorologist Amy Freeze. “And all of a sudden, we’re watching Pilar under a microscope.”
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Mexican authorities are still trying to determine how many are missing after Otis, the strongest Pacific hurricane on record to make landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico, devastated Acapulco with 165 mph winds. The death toll rose to 48 over the weekend, and countless tourists are still stranded after Otis damaged and destroyed 80% of resorts and hotels.
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Pilar is the sixteenth-named tropical cyclone in the Pacific.
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Tropical Storm Pilar is about 205 miles southwest of San Salvador, El Salvador, moving east-northeast at 6 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 50 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds stretch out 70 miles.
Tropical storms have a closed low-pressure center and are made up of strong winds and torrential rainfall. A cyclone is declared a tropical storm when maximum sustained winds reach at least 39 mph and a maximum of 73 mph.
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The Republic of El Salvador already declared a State of Emergency. The NHC issued a Tropical Storm Watch for the entire Pacific coast of El Salvador and Honduras, including the Gulf of Fonseca. Nicaragua is included in the watch from the Honduran border south to Puerto Sandino.
A Tropical Storm Watch means winds between 39 and 73 mph are possible in the watch area within 48 hours, in this case within 36 hours.
NHC estimates that the storm will produce 5 to 10 inches of rain, with local amounts of up to 15 inches for portions of Central America from El Salvador to Costa Rica through Wednesday.
“This rainfall will produce flash and urban flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” wrote the NHC.
Dangerous swells will pound the coast for the next several days and trigger life-threatening surf and rip currents, according to the NHC.
Heavy rains could start across Central America as early as Tuesday as Pilar continues to push east for the next couple of days.
“Thereafter, nearly all of the models stall Pilar near the coast of Central America by Tuesday night, though they still keep the core of the storm offshore,” wrote the NHC. “On Wednesday, Pilar will likely turn west-southwestward away from land as a mid-level ridge builds to the north of the system.”
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That stall will anchor heavy rains over the coast and mountains.
Like Otis, the NHC forecasts Pilar strengthening to just shy of hurricane strength at its closest approach to El Salvador. By Wednesday, the storm head west-southwestward away from land and weaken slowly.
Another disturbance is about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. The NHC is investigating and calls it Invest 93-E and gives it a 30% or low chance of strengthening into a tropical depression in the next two days.
An invest is a naming convention the NHC uses to identify areas they are investigating for possible development.
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If the disturbance did strengthen into a tropical storm, it would be named Ramon.
The hurricane season in the Pacific ends on November 30.