Hurricane Alex strikes Mexico

Hurricane Alex made landfall along the coast of northeastern Mexico as a category 2 storm

It is the first June hurricane of category 2 strength or greater since Hurricane Alma reached category 3 status in June 1966

RMS issued the following assessment.

Hurricane Alex made landfall along the coast of northeast Mexico approximately 150 miles (241 km) north of Tampico and 160 miles (257 km) southwest of Brownsville Texas on Thursday, 1 July with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/hr), classifying the system as a category 2 hurricane by wind.

Alex was a fairly large tropical cyclone at landfall with hurricane strength winds extending outwards up to 70 miles (110 km) from its center and tropical storm force winds extending outwards up to 205 miles (335 km), mainly to the northeast of the storm. Despite this, Alex was far enough south from the Texas border to mean that southern Texas escaped the wrath of Alex's hurricane force winds.

Alex has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is currently tracking inland over Mexico on a west-southwest course and is expected to dissipate over land in the next 24 hours. The biggest risk associated with Alex now is the heavy rainfall that is spreading inland which has the potential to trigger flash flooding and landslides, particularly in the mountainous region of central Mexico.

There have been few reports of severe damage resulting from Alex's wind field, however media reports suggest that there has been some flooding in Mexico and southern Texas as a result of the heavy rain and some minor storm surge flooding. Tornadoes spawned in Alex's outer bands have caused some damage to automobiles and uprooted trees. Power outages are also fairly limited.