Cristina to drench Central America with torrential rain this week
Boris has disippated over southern Mexico, but Cristina will live on with torrential rains that can unleash dangerous flash flooding and mudslides in part of Central America. Cristina will slowly move ashore.
Tropical Rainstorm Cristina is holding on and is expected to produce flooding rain that will inundate the Pacific coast of Central America and southern Mexico this week.
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Cristina moving inland to Central America
Over the weekend, AccuWeather meteorologists dubbed a second brewing mass of showers and thunderstorms along the west coast of Central America a tropical rainstorm to raise public awareness. This storm was upgraded to a tropical depression Monday morning and was named Tropical Storm Cristina at midday Monday. Cristina began to lose both wind intensity and organization Wednesday night as it approached Central America, and it is now a tropical rainstorm.
The center of Tropical Rainstorm Cristina was located just inland of western El Salvador as of Thursday morning.
The AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Cristina is 1 in Mexico and Central America.
The main threat from Cristina continues to be torrential downpours that can lead to dangerous flash flooding and mudslides. An extensive band of 8-12 inches of rain is forecast along part of the west coast of Central America and southern Mexico from the tropical rainstorm with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches.
Cristina will continue to move farther inland toward southeastern Mexico through Friday, and while no longer posing a threat for storm surge or wind, heavy rain can continue to impact much of Guatemala, El Salvador and parts of Mexico through the end of the week.
There is a chance that Cristina or some of its energy could reach the southwestern Gulf later this week, where it could regenerate or help initiate a new center that would be assigned an Atlantic name. AccuWeather meteorologists have initiated a low-risk development potential for the southwest Gulf due to this possibility.
Its moisture may fuel flooding downpours across parts of Texas and the Southeast states later this weekend through next week.
The eastern and central Pacific hurricane basins are expected to be a hotbed of tropical activity this season, largely due to the unfolding and forecast intensification of El Niño.
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