National Hurricane Center forecasters are watching three weather systems in the Eastern Pacific, including Hurricane Carlotta, which formed Friday but is expected to weaken next week.
Carlotta had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, with higher gusts, on Friday afternoon and was about 590 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja, Calif., heading west at 14 mph.
It is a small storm with hurricane-force winds extending up to 10 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extending up to 80 miles.
The hurricane was forecast to turn to the west-northwest by tonight when it is expected to peak at 100 mph maximum sustained winds, according to forecasters with the Miami-based center.
“Later this weekend, the hurricane is expected to turn to the west-northwest,” forecasters said. “Carlotta should turn back to the west as it weakens later in the forecast period.”
“The window for additional strengthening is growing smaller,” they said. “Within a day, Carlotta is expected to be over cooler ocean waters and begin weakening. By Sunday night or Monday morning, the vertical wind shear is forecast to notably increase and steadily weaken the hurricane.”
By Wednesday, Carlotta is forecast to be a post-tropical depression with 30 mph winds as it nears the Central Pacific.
The center is also watching two other East Pacific storm systems that could become tropical cyclones in the next week.
One could form into a tropical depression this weekend but is expected to face unfavorable conditions for development as it moves northeast into cooler waters, according to the hurricane center.
Another system, a few hundred miles to the south of Mexico, has a 90% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone within a week as it moves west-northwest at 10 to 15 mph and away from Mexico, forecasters said.