Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: UPDATE 2-Hurricane Bud takes aim at Mexico's Pacific coast

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UPDATE 2-Hurricane Bud takes aim at Mexico's Pacific coast May 24th 2012, 22:20 Thu May 24, 2012 6:20pm EDT * Hurricane Bud is first Pacific coast storm this year * Pacific ports remain open as storm strengthens to Cat 2 * No major oil installations are in the storm's path (Updates with changing storm location, wind speed) MEXICO CITY, May 24 (Reuters) - Hurricane Bud was strengthening off Mexico's Pacific coast on Thursday, threatening to hit land on Friday near the shipping port of Manzanillo, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The first hurricane off the Pacific coast this season, Bud is now a Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph), but could grow into a major hurricane later on Thursday. A major hurricane is a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale. Mexico has no major oil installations on the Pacific coast in the storm's path. Bud is expected to weaken again before making landfall on Friday, the center said. "Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the coast within the hurricane warning area by Friday afternoon," the Miami-based center said. The storm was located about 225 miles (365 km) southwest of Manzanillo, home to Mexico's largest Pacific port, and was moving northeast at around 9 mph (15 kph), the center said. The hurricane is expected to soak the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco and southern Nayarit with around 4 to 6 inches (15 cm) of rain. Mexico's government has begun a hurricane watch along the coast from Punta San Telmo to Cabo Corrientes. All Mexican ports on the Pacific coast remained open including Manzanillo, where the transport ministry said the weather was calm with cloudy skies. Most of Mexico's oil platforms and exporting ports are in the Gulf of Mexico and affected by storms in the Atlantic, where forecasters are expecting a "near normal" hurricane season this year, with nine to 15 tropical storms and four to eight named hurricanes. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg, Dave Graham and David Alire Garcia; editing by Todd Eastham) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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