MEXICO CITY — Tropical Storm Bud left the Baja Peninsula early Friday and re-emerged over the Gulf of California where it weakened to a tropical depression after dumping heavy rains on the resorts of Los Cabos.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded Bud on Friday morning when its sustained winds dropped to 35 mph (55 kph). It was moving north at 12 mph (19 kph) toward the Mexican mainland and the state of Sonora.
Mexico’s National Water Commission said that Bud had made landfall over Baja California Sur on Thursday night.
The storm’s center was about 195 miles (315 kilometers) south-southeast of Guaymas, Mexico. It was expected to bring heavy rain to northwest Mexico and the southwest United States.
Baja California Sur Gov. Carlos Mendoza Davis said that preliminary reports indicated Bud did not cause any significant damage. The airport in La Paz was closed temporarily Friday morning because of limited visibility, but it reopened later in the morning.
Bud lashed palms trees and its waves pounded the sand on the Baja Peninsula, where memories were still fresh of the extensive damage done in 2014 by a direct hit from Category 3 Hurricane Odile.
Overall, however, there was a sense of relief that Bud had been sapped of most of its punch. It was previously a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (210 kph).
But it threw heavy rainfall over a large swath of Mexico. Earlier in the week, intense rain overwhelmed a reservoir in the central city of Guanajuato, sending a river of water through downtown streets that flooded homes and vehicles.
The hurricane center said Bud, the second named storm of the 2018 Pacific hurricane season, could cause dangerous surf and bring an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain to Sonora state and northwest Mexico, threatening floods and landslides.
Further down Mexico’s Pacific coast Friday, forecasters were watching a tropical depression with sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) that was moving north-northeast at 3 mph (6 kph). It was 75 miles (125 kilometers) south of Acapulco.
It was expected to become a tropical storm later Friday and quickly weaken after making landfall on Saturday. The storm could leave 3 to 6 inches of rain along the coast of Guerrero state, including Acapulco.
