image: At 914 a.m. EDT (1314 UTC) on June 11, NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of Hurricane Bud in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. view more
Credit: Credits: NOAA/NRL
The second major hurricane of the Eastern Pacific Ocean season formed after the first hurricane, Aletta, weakened. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of Hurricane Bud on June 11.
Hurricane Bud formed on Saturday, June 9 around 5 p.m. EDT as Tropical Depression Three-E. By 11 p.m. EDT that day, the storm strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Bud.
Bud formed close enough to southwestern Mexico to trigger a watch. The National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Watch from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center noted winds, heavy rain and dangerous ocean swells are likely. NHC said on June 11, "Bud is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 3 to 6 inches across much of southwestern Mexico, with isolated maximum amounts of 10 inches into Tuesday afternoon. These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides. In addition, ocean swells generated by Bud will continue to affect portions of the coast of southwestern Mexico during the next few days. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area beginning this afternoon, June 11.
NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP flew over Hurricane Bud at about 4:45 a.m. EDT (0845 UTC) on June 11 and captured a night-time image of the storm. Bud is located east of Tropical Storm Aletta. In the image, city lights from coastal Mexico are visible to the east.
At 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 UTC) on June 11, NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of Bud. The image showed a well-formed storm with powerful thunderstorms tightly circling the center. However, the image also showed the eye was obscured by high clouds.
NHC's seventh advisory was issued at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC). At that time the eye of Hurricane Bud was located near latitude 16.4 degrees north and longitude 106.5 degrees west. That's about 235 miles (380 km) southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.
Bud is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph (17 kph), and this motion is expected to continue today and tonight with a decrease in forward speed. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 115 mph (185 kph) with higher gusts. Bud is now a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some additional strengthening is possible today, but a slow weakening trend is expected to begin by early Tuesday, June 12. The estimated minimum central pressure is 960 millibars.
NHC forecasters noted that on the forecast track, the core of Bud and its stronger winds are expected to remain well offshore of the southwestern coast of mainland Mexico during the next few days.
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For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov