Mexico City - Tropical Storm Beatriz drenched parts of Mexico's Pacific coast with heavy rains on Monday and was expected to become a hurricane over tourist areas and port towns, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the Mexican coast north from the beach resort of Zihuatanejo, including the busy commercial and tourist port of Manzanillo, the Miami-based centre said.
Mexico has no oil installations in the Pacific but its coast is dotted with beach resorts popular with US tourists.
Beatriz, the second named storm of the Pacific season, is likely to make landfall overnight or on Tuesday morning, causing some isolated flash flooding and possibly landslides before moving back out to sea early on Wednesday, according to the centre.
The storm was about 210km southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 110km/h, according to the hurricane's Centre report at 8pm EDT.
Hurricane Adrian, which formed earlier this month and left no damage, was the first hurricane of the 2011 Pacific season. - Reuters