Tropical Storm Georgette forms off the coast of Baja California

September 21st, 2010 - 8:22 pm ICT by BNO News  

MIAMI (BNO NEWS) — Tropical Storm Georgette formed in the Pacific off the coast of Baja California in Mexico on early Tuesday morning, forecasters said.

As of 5 a.m. EDT, Georgette was located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. It is moving toward the north-northwest near 15 kilometers (9 miles) per hour.

“Georgette is expected to move inland over Baja California later today and should weaken to a depression on Wednesday,” said forecaster Robbie Berg at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. “Global model fields suggest that the circulation will be short-lived, and the official forecast calls for the cyclone to dissipate over the Gulf of California by Wednesday night.”

Maximum sustained winds of the storm were near 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour during the morning hours of Tuesday, making it a weak tropical storm. “Weakening is forecast once the center of Georgette moves inland over Baja California later today,” Berg added.

Authorities in Mexico have issued a tropical storm warning for southern Baja California from Agua Blanca southwest to Cabo San Lucas on the west coast, and from Buenavista southward to Cabo San Lucas on the east coast.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area, in this case within 12 to 24 hours.

Georgette is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) over the southern Baja California peninsula and the Mexican states of Sinaloa and western Sonora on Tuesday. “These rainfall amounts may produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides,” Berg warned.

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