Enrique clings to tropical storm status

As tropical activity in the Atlantic basin has come back to life, Enrique continues to churn in waters southwest of Mexico. The storm, which was the first hurricane of the 2021 season for either basin, Atlantic or Pacific, is past its peak strength, according to forecasters.

Enrique was upgraded to a tropical storm and the fifth named system in the eastern Pacific basin early Friday morning. Over the weekend, Enrique peaked at Category 1 hurricane strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

By Monday afternoon, Enrique weakened into a tropical storm over cooler waters.

Enrique is tracking close to the southern tip of Baja California Sur, possibly making landfall as a tropical depression or rainstorm on Wednesday night.

"The most significant impact from Enrique is expected to be the heavy rain that will continue to fall across southwestern Mexico," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said.

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Some of the same areas of southwestern Mexico that have already been impacted by Enrique were hit with up to 15.75 inches (400 millimeters) of rain and gusty winds from Tropical Storm Dolores. Dolores formed on June 18 and dissipated after moving inland on June 20 near the Michoacán and Colima state border of Mexico.

Rainfall totals of 8-12 inches (200-300 millimeters) with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 20 inches (510 millimeters) can occur with Enrique.

"Dangerous surf will also impact coastal areas of southwest Mexico," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said.

Otherwise, a few gusts to the AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 60 mph (100 km/h) can occur along the immediate coast, which is strong enough to break tree limbs and potentially trigger sporadic power outages.

Enrique is a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes, primarily due to flooding in southwestern Mexico.

There is a chance that some moisture may be drawn far enough to the north to make it into part of the southwestern United States this week. However, if Enrique were to break up before reaching Baja California, Mexico, that potential would diminish.

AccuWeather meteorologists are predicting 14-18 named storms in the eastern Pacific this season with six to 10 expected to become hurricanes.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.

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