Currently — October 11, 2023: Hurricane Lidia makes landfall in Mexico

The weather, currently.

Lidia is the third-strongest hurricane in history to make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Lidia joins a long list of hurricanes that have rapidly intensified in the hours right before landfall in recent years, going from a Category 1 to a Category 4 before slamming into the coastline near Puerto Vallarta.

Meteorologist Bob Henson explains: “Lidia's top sustained winds increased more than predicted, and in spectacular fashion—from 70 mph to 140 mph in the 24 hours before it made landfall. A growing body of research is finding links between rapid intensification and human-caused climate change.”

Near-shore ocean temperatures are warming, and when hurricanes like Lidia intensify in the few hours before landfall, it reduces the time that authorities and residents have to respond and prepare. It’s another one of those sinister ways that climate change is making extreme weather worse.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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