Daily Times

Hurricane Norma weakened Thursday to a Category 3 storm as it headed for Mexico’s Pacific coast — still strong enough to cause flash floods and damage, forecasters said. By 2100 GMT on Thursday, the tropical storm was downgraded by one category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale of the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), which grades hurricanes up to a maximum Category 5. Norma was located about 265 miles (425 kilometers) west of Manzanillo in the western Mexican state of Colima, it said, with winds exceeding 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour and stronger gusts. The storm was traveling northward towards the Baja California peninsula at a speed of about six miles per hour. “Some weakening is expected during the next few days, but Norma is forecast to be a hurricane when it moves near the southern portion of Baja California” by Friday night and Saturday, said the NHC. Norma could reach San Jose del Cabo in the Baja California Sur state by Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane, and again overnight Sunday in Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, the Conagua national water commission said in a statement. As the storm headed for the peninsula that includes the beach resort of Los Cabos popular with American and other tourists, the government activated a national emergency plan.