MIAMI, May 29 (UPI) -- Hurricane Barbara made landfall Wednesday in the Mexican state of Chiapas as a Category 1 hurricane, with top winds of 75 mph, forecasters said.
The center of the hurricane was located about 80 miles east of Salina Cruz, Mexico, moving north-northeast at about 9 mph as it crosses the isthmus of Tehuantepec, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in an advisory issued at 5 p.m. EDT.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Puerto Angel to Barra de Tonala, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Barra de Tonala to Boca de Pijijiapan.
The storm was expected to weaken rapidly as it moves inland and will probably be reduced to a tropical depression by early Thursday morning. It should dissipate within the next day or two, meteorologists said.
It is the easternmost landfall for an eastern north Pacific hurricane since reliable records began in 1966, meteorologists said. It is also the second-earliest hurricane landfall in the reliable record.
Barbara was expected to produce 6-10 inches of rain over eastern Oaxaca and western Chiapas in Mexico, with isolated higher amounts of 20 inches possible in southeastern Oaxaca. The rain could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.
