As it moved towards Mexico's southern coast on Tuesday, Hurricane Bonnie strengthened to a Category 3 storm after making a remarkable transition from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean.
As it moves generally westward further into the Pacific, the storm won't be a direct threat to land, according to forecasters.
However, the National Hurricane Center issued a warning that during the course of the next day or two, areas of the southern and southwestern Mexican beaches will be affected by swells brought on by Bonnie.
Hurricane season is here
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Late Tuesday afternoon, Bonnie reached a maximum sustained wind speed of 115 mph, classifying it as a Category 3 "major" hurricane.
The 2022 eastern Pacific hurricane season's first significant storm has made landfall, as per USA Today.
At 5:00 p.m., its location was 340 miles south of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, and its speed was 15 miles per hour as of 08:00 EDT.
After making landfall as a tropical storm on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua late Friday, the storm triggered significant flooding as it moved into soggy Nicaragua over the weekend.
In two separate flooding-related incidents, two persons died, according to a statement from the Nicaraguan army.
According to AccuWeather, the hurricane center continued to refer to the storm as Bonnie since its circulation did not break down over Central America, and it did not get the next name on the list for the 2022 Eastern Pacific hurricane season, Darby.
This is the first crossover storm since Hurricane Otto in November 2016, when it crossed Costa Rica and developed into a tropical storm before moving on to the Eastern Pacific.
Nearly 20 crossover storms, which tracked in both the Eastern Pacific and the Atlantic basins, have been officially acknowledged.
According to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell, there may have been another 20 or more storms that crossed over but were never formally acknowledged as such.
As a cyclone tore across Central America before heading towards Mexico, at least three people were killed, as per Aljazeera.
On Sunday, Tropical Storm Bonnie was downgraded to a category 1 hurricane after it caused the deaths of one person in El Salvador and two more in Nicaragua.
An uncommon occurrence in the storm-prone region, the storm originated in the Atlantic Ocean and traveled across a small section of Central America before making landfall in the Pacific Ocean as a tropical storm.
According to the US National Hurricane Center, Bonnie had maximum sustained winds of 125 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) with greater gusts as it headed into Mexico.
Over the next few days, the agency predicted that Bonnie's center will move parallel to but remain south of the coast of southern and southwestern Mexico.
According to the environment ministry, Bonnie caused hail and strong gusty winds in certain locations, along with very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms in the coastal region, the volcanic mountain range, and the San Salvador urban area.
The hurricane may cause heavy rainfall, mudslides, flooding, severe wind gusts, and ocean waves up to 16 feet (5 meters) tall along the southern Pacific coast of Mexico, the country's meteorological agency said.
