Hurricane Norma strengthened Thursday to a powerful Category 4 storm as it headed toward Mexico's Pacific coast with winds exceeding 130 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

"Norma is a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale," said the center, which grades such storms up to a maximum Category 5.

As the storm headed for the Baja California peninsula, including the beach resort of Los Cabos popular with American and other tourists, the government activated a national emergency plan.

More than 6,600 soldiers were placed on alert in the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, said the national defense secretariat, with a focus on the cities of San Quintin, Mulege and La Paz.

"From experience (we know) we need to move fast to put in place teams to help the population, and food," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters Wednesday.

According to the NHC, Norma was putting out maximum sustained winds were near 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts.

"Small intensity fluctuations are possible today, followed by gradual weakening beginning Friday and continuing into the weekend," said an NHC statement.

Norma was moving northward at about seven miles (11 kilometers) per hour, and was expected to approach the Baja California peninsula on Friday night and Saturday, with tropical storm conditions possible by early Saturday.

Flash flooding

"Norma is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches... through Sunday across the far southern portion of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur," said the statement, with localized downpours of as much as 15 inches.

"These rains will likely produce flash and urban flooding, along with possible mudslides in areas of higher terrain."

The center also warned that ocean swells "are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions."

By 1500 GMT, the storm's epicenter was 390 kilometers (242 miles) west of Manzanillo, in the western Mexican state of Colima.

Just last week, western Mexico was hit by Hurricane Lidia, which left at least two dead after making landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing flooding.

Days earlier, Tropical Storm Max left two people dead and dozens of houses flooded in the southern state of Guerrero, one of the country's poorest regions, authorities said Tuesday.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer with climate change.

© 2023 AFP