Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: Tropical Storm Blanca has rolled into the Baja California Peninsula, with rains and high winds expected to lash a wide area even as the system continued to lose strength.
Only recently a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 13215 kph, Blanca had faded to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall. It was downgraded to a tropical depression by yesterday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph and is expected to be a remnant low by on Monday.
The US National Hurricane Center had forecast that rain associated with the storm would begin to fall in the US Southwest yesterday.
Tropical storm warnings and watches were lifted for the entire peninsula including its southern tip, where the resort region of Los Cabos was battered by Hurricane Odile last September. Local media said there were some flooded streets and scattered power outages in Los Cabos, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Blanca is the earliest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall on the peninsula, according to the Hurricane Center. The storm's center was about 95 kilometers southwest of Santa Rosalia in the afternoon, heading north-northwest at 28 kph.
