MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Lidia made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm Tuesday evening with winds of 140 mph near Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Lidia’s eye appeared to have reached land near Las Penitas in the western state of Jalisco. The area is a sparsely populated peninsula. The storm is moving south of Puerto Vallarta, which could cushion the blow on the resort.
In 2015, Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 hurricane, also made landfall on the same sparsely-populated stretch of coastline between the resort of Puerto Vallarta and major port of Manzanillo.
Lidia was expected to rapidly weaken over the mountains and dissipate, but was still capable of soaking the region with heavy rain. Forecasters predicted Lidia could still be a Category 1 hurricane when it brushed by Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, around midnight.