The 2026 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season just won’t let up this year.
As AccuWeather reports, Hurricane Simon is threatening Mexico’s west-central coast with ongoing torrential rain and dangerous seas, while a new storm, Trudy, could rapidly intensify into a major hurricane not far away in the eastern Pacific in the coming days.
The severity of conditions along the Mexican coast from Trudy will depend on whether the storm’s eyewall reaches the coast or the storm makes a glancing blow and closely parallels the shoreline. A track difference of 50-100 miles could have profound differences in impacts.
Landfall would bring severe conditions typical of a major hurricane, while the eye passing 100 miles offshore might allow for only tropical storm conditions.
Simon’s Path is Blocked For Now
Weak steering winds will cause Simon to move slowly through at least Thursday and meander off Mexico’s coast. But even as Simon wanders off the Mexican coast, moisture will be pulled to the northeast, enhancing some rainfall into northern Mexico and the United States.
Simon is forecast to remain nearly stationary for the next couple of days. Based on some new information, if Simon survives, it may track along the west side of the Baja Peninsula this weekend to early next week. Some fragments of moisture will be torn off Simon and can drift into parts of the central U.S. this week, joining other moisture, even if the center remains well south of the border.
Regardless of Simon’s eventual track, rough seas, waves washing over beaches and coastal roads, drenching rain, flash flooding and gusty winds will continue to threaten portions of Mexico’s Pacific coast through the end of the week.
Simon’s strongest winds and heaviest rain in southwestern Mexico have already occurred, but additional rain and gusty winds will affect the west-central coast through the end of the week. Some heavy rain and wind could reach northwest Mexico by this weekend, depending on the storm’s track.
Trudy is On Track to become a Powerful Hurricane
There is another tropical problem brewing along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Tropical Storm Trudy developed on Tuesday and is forecast to strengthen in the coming days as it tracks northward. “Trudy has the potential to quickly become a major hurricane and even reach Category 4 or 5 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale,” AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said.
The storm is forecast to pass close enough to Mexico’s Pacific coast to bring torrential rain, dangerous surf and strong wind gusts. At this time, there is an extensive band where 8-12 inches of rain is expected to fall.
Rainfall totals of 4-8 inches are forecast across a broad area of Mexico’s Pacific coast. Some of the rain will fall in areas between Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta that Simon and other storms have already drenched this season. Manzanillo could face some of the storm’s heaviest rain, strongest winds and greatest flooding risk.
If Trudy strengthens as forecast, stronger winds near its center will generate dangerously high waves offshore. Large swells will spread outward, threatening small boats and large vessels. For large swells to reach Southern California beaches from either Simon or Trudy, the storms would have to swing farther west, away from the Mexican coast, next week.
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