Bud strengthens to Category Three hurricane

MEXICO CITY: Hurricane Bud grew into a Category Three storm as it barreled towards an expected on Friday landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

The first eastern Pacific hurricane of the 2012 season was about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico and packing sustained winds of nearly 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, the Miami-based NHC said.

On the current track, "the centre of Bud is forecast to move inland along the Mexican coast by late Friday," the NHC said. The storm was upgraded late Thursday to a Category Three hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

While the storm is forecast to weaken, Bud "is still expected to reach the coast of Mexico as a hurricane," the NHC said.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion."

Bud is expected to drop five to eight inches (12-20 centimeters) of rain in the Mexican coastal states of Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco and southern Nayarit, "with possible isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches."

This rainfall could produce "life-threatening" flash floods and mudslides, as well as a "dangerous" storm surge with coastal flooding near and to the east of where the epicenter makes landfall, the NHC said.

Mexican authorities were on alert, as warnings were issued from Manzanillo northwest to Cabo Corrientes.

"We are on alert, we are preparing some 120 shelters in the coastal towns," Melchor Urusua, head of Colima's civilian protection agency, told AFP.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US federal agency, meanwhile issued its Atlantic Hurricane Season outlook, predicting that a "near-normal season is most likely."

"The outlook calls for a 50 percent chance of a near-normal season, a 25 percent chance of an above normal season, and a 25 percent chance of a below-normal season," it said.

The Atlantic hurricane region includes the northern Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.

"This outlook reflects the possibility of competing climate factors, combined with several circulation and sea surface temperature features that suggest a less active season compared to many in recent years," NOAA added.