Hurricane Delta has rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 130mph, as it makes its way towards Mexico and the US Gulf Coast.
Delta is forecast to hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday with an “extremely dangerous storm surge” and “significant flash flooding,” according to the National Hurricane Centre.
It is then scheduled to reach landfall in the US on Thursday night, with areas from Florida to Louisiana braced for dangerous conditions into Friday morning, according to USA Today.
On Monday, the centre predicted that Delta would only just reach hurricane status before landfall in the US, and the storm was at that point classified as a tropical depression.
However, overnight Delta was reclassified as a Category 2 hurricane, before it went through “a very impressive rapid intensification episode” and became a Category 4 with winds up to 130mph.
The hurricane intensified from 40mph to 110mph in the 24 hour period after it became a storm, which is the biggest increase in a day for a storm since Hurricane Wilma in 2005, according to USA Today.
Delta is predicted to continue intensifying on its way to Mexico’s resort-heavy coast, and it could reach winds of up to 140mph by the time it makes landfall in the country.
It is likely to lose some of its intensity as it makes its way through Mexico, but the hurricane centre has predicted that “conditions look ripe for re-intensification” for Delta, as it then makes its way from Mexico to the US Gulf Coast.
Delta is the earliest 25th named storm to form in the Atlantic, beating the old record of 15 November 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
On Tuesday, Mexico began evacuating tourists and residents from coastal areas, as hotels in Puerto Morelos and Cancun moved their guests into government shelters, according to CNBC.
Cancun Mayor Mara Lezama Espinosa confirmed that more shelters than normal had been opened by the city, in order to accommodate everyone, while giving people more space due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Tuesday that 5,000 federal troops and emergency personnel will be made available to help the affected areas.
Delta comes just after Storm Gamma hit the same coast with near-hurricane force winds. That storm also drenched Tabasco and Chiapas and killed at least six people, while forcing thousands from their homes.
According to Mexico’s civil defence agency, four of the deaths, including two children, occurred in Chiapas and were caused by a landslide that buried their home.
Two other deaths were recorded in Tabasco state, where one person was dragged away by the water and another was drowned.
