MIAMI — Vance became a hurricane Friday and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it would strengthen rapidly as it nears Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Vance was a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 m.p.h. (140 km/h) as it churned about 440 miles (710 kilometres) south-southwest of Acapulco, and could become a major Category 3 hurricane before the end of Friday, the centre said. It was moving toward the north-northwest near 5 m.p.h. (8 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through the weekend, approaching the Puerto Vallarta area by Monday. The hurricane’s outer bands were already funnelling gale-force winds and rough seas into Mexico’s Gulf of Tehuantepec, the centre said. It’s been an intense hurricane season in the Pacific Ocean, with storms spawning in assembly-line fashion near Hawaii and Mexico as El Niño conditions worsened by global warming create unusual weather, like this week’s severe flooding and tornadoes hitting the southwestern United States and the prolonged drought in Central America’s Dry Corridor. Vance would be the seventh major hurricane in a row this year in the Pacific, following Nolo, Odalys, Polo, Rachel, Simon and Trudy. The World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee doesn’t use less common names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z.
