Dangerous Hurricane Willa to slam Mexico with damaging winds, flooding into midweek

By Courtney Spamer, AccuWeather meteorologist

By Eric Leister, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

October 23, 2018, 4:12:03 PM EDT

Hurricane Willa remains a dangerous major hurricane on Tuesday and will make landfall along the Mexico coastline by Tuesday night.

Willa intensified into a Category 5 hurricane on Monday morning with maximum-sustained winds of 160 mph. The storm's winds then weakened from Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.

While modest weakening is expected to continue through landfall, Willa will remain a life-threatening hurricane.

In advance of the storm, the governments of Sinaloa and Nayarit ordered coastal region schools to close on Monday and began preparing emergency shelters ahead of Willa's arrival, according to the Associated Press.

Officials said 7,000 to 8,000 people were being evacuated from low-lying areas of Sinaloa.

Despite remaining off the coast of western Mexico, the large size of Willa will result in gusty showers and thunderstorms spreading across western Jalisco and Nayarit through Tuesday.

This will bring the risk for localized flash flooding and travel disruptions; however, the worst of Willa will be felt from Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Willa is expected to make landfall within 30 miles of Mazatlan, Mexico, late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night.

"Given the current structure and the well-defined wind field around Willa, this hurricane has the potential to bring significant and perhaps catastrophic winds and storm surge damage to where it makes landfall," said AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.

"Once inland, the hurricane's wind field will interact with the higher terrain, and this will cause Willa to weaken considerably during Wednesday," said Kottlowski.

While the risk for damaging winds decreases away from the coastline, flash flooding and mudslides will remain a major concern.

Willa will bring torrential rainfall from where it makes landfall into west-central and central Mexico. Rainfall totals of 4-8 inches with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 12 inches are expected in these areas.

Residents of this region are urged to review hurricane preparation tips and to make sure they have non-perishable food, water, medicines and supplies needed to protect property from damage.

Anyone living in areas prone to flooding rain, mudslides or storm surge flooding in southwestern or western Mexico should review evacuation routes and be ready to leave if ordered to do so by local officials.

Willa has the potential to leave a portion of these areas without power for days after landfall.

Willa may spread heavy rain and the risk for flooding across central Mexico and into the southern United States later in the week and into next weekend.

While Willa delivers a devastating hit on the western Mexico coastline, Tropical Rainstorm Vicente is expected to remain weak and impact areas farther south into Tuesday night.

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Vicente is forecast to move inland across Michoacan by Tuesday night before dissipating.

While damaging winds are not expected from Vicente, heavy rainfall will elevate the risk for flooding, mudslides and travel disruptions across western Guerrero, Michoacan and Colima.

Heavy rainfall across Oaxaca resulted in at least 12 deaths from drownings and mudslides in recent days due to downpours from Vicente.

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