Hurricane Jova Heads to Mexico

Jova strengthened into a major hurricane over the Pacific Ocean, packing winds of as much as 120 miles per hour as it moved toward Mexico.

The storm was about 265 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, at 2 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time and moving east at 5 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Jova is now a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, indicating it’s capable of causing “devastating damage.”

“Some additional strengthening is forecast during the next day or so, followed by little change in intensity until landfall,” the NHC said on its website. The center of the hurricane will near Mexico’s coast by tomorrow afternoon, it said.

The Mexican government issued a hurricane warning for Punta San Telmo north to Cabo Corrientes, and a tropical-storm warning from Lazaro Cardenas to south of Punta San Telmo, the advisory showed.

Irwin, another tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific, is 790 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with winds of 50 mph, down from hurricane strength earlier.