RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Tropical Storm Bonnie was upgraded to a category one hurricane by US authorities after killing three people in El Salvador and Nicaragua on its path toward Mexico.
Swells caused by the 120kmph gusts were causing lethal surf and rip conditions, while Mexico’s meteorological service expects waves of up to 16ft (5m) and intense rainfall, mudslides, and flooding.
The hurricane center expected Bonnie to remain at hurricane strength for the next few days.
What’s unusual about Bonnie is that it was not born in the Pacific but the Atlantic — the Caribbean specifically.
Bonnie became the Atlantic’s second named storm of 2022 on July 1 as it was approaching Nicaragua and Costa Rica’s Caribbean coasts.
It made landfall there as a tropical storm and crossed over into the Pacific on Saturday, where it began to strengthen gradually.
Bonnie is the first hurricane to jump oceans since Hurricane Otto in 2016. Otto also started as an Atlantic storm and made landfall in Central America as a Category 3 hurricane before crossing over Central America and into the Pacific.
The hurricane center said Bonnie is expected to move parallel to but remain south of the coasts of southern and southwestern Mexico over the next few days.
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