Agatha to hit Mexico today as category 3 hurricane

Forecasters have released images of the first tropical storm forming on Mexico's southern coast on Saturday. Agatha- has been recognized as the first storm in the Pacific Hurricane Season for this year.

It is forecasted to reach Mexico on Monday as a category three hurricane as per the US National Hurricane Center.

According to the National Hurricane Center, outer bands of rain from the storm were moving over southern Mexico early Monday, shortly before Agatha was forecast to deliver threatening floods and mudslides.

Agatha was a Category 2 hurricane as of 2 a.m. Eastern time, about 125 miles southwest of Puerto Angel on Mexico's southern coast, with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. The weather in the region was forecast to worsen during the day.

Before making landfall in the afternoon or evening, the storm was predicted to become a "major hurricane," with maximum sustained winds of 111 mph or more. As it advances inland, Agatha will get less intensified.

A hurricane watch has been issued for areas of the southern state of Oaxaca's coast.

The storm's rains, according to Mexico's National Water Commission, "may trigger mudslides, a rise in river and stream levels, and floods in low-lying areas."

The centre warned there was a potential that the storm's leftovers may re-emerge over the Gulf of Mexico because the storm's current route will take it across the tight waist of Mexico's Isthmus.

A mother and her six children were killed in a landslide in northern Guatemala on Saturday, although the catastrophe did not appear to be related to Agatha.