Category 5 Hurricane Willa Heads Toward Mexico | NOAA

Powerful Hurricane Willa, the twenty-second named storm of the 2018 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season, is on a collision course with Mexico's southwestern coast. This image of the storm, captured by GOES East at 10 a.m. EDT October 22, shows Willa moving northward toward Mexico shortly after sunrise local time.

Over the weekend, Willa rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 48 hours. At 2 p.m. ET Monday (Oct. 22), the National Hurricane Center reported Willa had sustained winds of 160 mph. Willa is expected to unleash a combination of destructive waves and dangerous storm surge along the coast of southwestern Mexico by Tuesday evening, and dump up to 6 to 12 inches of rain, which will likely cause life-threatening flash flooding and landslides.

Willa is the tenth major hurricane (defined as a Category 3 storm or higher) to form in the eastern Pacific basin this year, and the third Category 5 hurricane after Hurricane Lane and Walaka.

Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Release Date: October 22, 2018

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