Monster Hurricane Rick weakened and slowed down early Monday as it barreled up Mexico’s Pacific coast as a downgraded Category Three storm, with US forecasters still calling it “dangerous.”
“Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts,” the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. “Rick is a Category Three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale,” the center added.
At 0900 GMT Monday, Rick was around 380 miles (615 kilometers) south southwest of the resort town of Cabo San Lucas as it headed northwest at 10 miles (17 kilometers) per hour, parallel to Mexico’s coast, the NHC said. The US forecasters warned about “potentially dangerous surf conditions” caused by large ocean swells.
“Interests in western mainland Mexico should monitor the progress of this hurricane,” the Miami-based center said. Rick is on track to turn northward on Tuesday and is expected to gradually weaken over the next 24 to 48 hours, the NHC said. But the center warned that even despite the weakening, “Rick is still expected to be a dangerous hurricane as it approaches the southern Baja Peninsula.”
The hurricane reached Category Five status on Saturday, as it churned towards Mexico’s Pacific coast with winds of more than 180 miles (285 kilometers) per hour, US forecasters said. The storm reached the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale after warm waters prompted its dramatic rise from a Category One to a Category Five system in less than 36 hours.
With 180 miles per hour winds, Rick became “the second-strongest eastern north Pacific hurricane on record after Linda of 1997,” the NHC said at the time. On Sunday, wind speeds diminished to near 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour, still within a Category Five storm, according to the NHC. But early Monday, the storm began rapidly losing its punch.
The seventh hurricane of the eastern north Pacific 2009 season, Rick comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Patricia, which last week placed Los Cabos on Baja’s southern tip under a state of emergency, before petering out.

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