MIAMI: Rina strengthened into a hurricane Monday in the western Caribbean, threatening to bring heavy rain and strong wind to an already waterlogged Central America and Mexico's Yucatan, US forecasters said.
After forming as a tropical storm overnight, Rina quickly powered up to hurricane status and is now likely to barrel into Belize and Mexico's popular tourist coast on the Yucatan peninsula by the end of the week, the National Hurricane Center said in a special 1800 GMT bulletin.
"Additional strengthening is expected during the next 48 hours and Rina is forecast to become a major (Category 3) hurricane by late Tuesday," the Miami-based NHC said.
Rina is currently a Category 1 storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale with sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour.
The sixth hurricane and 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was about 195 miles southwest of Grand Cayman island and some 360 miles east of Chetumal, Mexico, traveling northwest at about seven miles per hour, the NHC said.
Rina had spent days nagging the coastline of Honduras as a disorganized depression, then dramatically coalesced into a hurricane.
While it is still several days off, the NHC forecasts Rina will head directly over the popular Mexican tourist island of Cozumel and graze beach haven Cancun on Friday.
Rina was forecast to dump up to four inches (10 centimeters) of rain on the Grand Caymans, with similar amounts on the mainland. It's a heavy dose, but less than some parts of Central America received in recent weeks amid near-constant deluges.
The US agency urged authorities in the Yucatan peninsula and in Belize to closely monitor the storm's path and send out warnings when appropriate.
Central America has only just begun to recover from recent torrential rains which triggered deadly flooding and landslides, swamped huge swathes of farmland, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The number of fatalities across the region topped 100, including 36 deaths in Guatemala, 34 in El Salvador and 18 in Honduras, from non-stop downpours that have affected hundreds of thousands of people.
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