Hurricane Katia, the sixth hurricane of the 2017 season, is swirling off the coast of Mexico with sustained wind speeds of 80 mph.
Katia transitioned from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Wednesday afternoon as its wind speeds increased. Its center is located about 195 miles northeast of Veracruz, Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning for coastal areas of Mexico between Cabo Rojo and Laguna Verde. Along those parts of the coast, Katia's storm surge — the quick rise in water caused by a hurricane's strong winds — could raise water levels as much as 7 feet above normal tides. Areas of Mexico to the north of Cabo Rojo and to the south of Laguna Verde are under a tropical-storm warning.
Forecasters don't expect Katia to move much Thursday — it was stationary as of 4 p.m. CDT. But on Friday or Saturday, it could turn southwest and move inland, as the forecast cone below shows. By Sunday, the hurricane is expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm (indicated by the letter S).
Unlike Hurricane Irma, which is causing devastation in the Caribbean and is expected to arrive in Florida this weekend, Katia is considered a small tropical cyclone. Its hurricane-force winds (classified as 74 mph or higher) extend 10 miles out from the center, and the radius of tropical-storm-force winds extends about 70 miles. Irma, on the other hand, is more than 400 miles wide.
Katia is expected to drop 5 to 10 inches of rain over parts of Veracruz, though total accumulated rainfall could be as high as 15 inches in isolated areas.
The 2017 hurricane season was projected to be unusually active, and that has certainly been the case so far. Three hurricanes are in the Atlantic simultaneously — Katia, Jose, and Irma— and the peak of the season doesn't usually come until September 10. The fourth hurricane of the season doesn't typically occur until about September 21, and Katia is already the sixth.
Texas and Louisiana are still reeling from the flooding and destruction left by Hurricane Harvey at the end of August.
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