Hurricane Rina Strengthens in Caribbean on Track Toward Yucatan Peninsula

Hurricane Rina strengthened to a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as it churned over Caribbean waters toward resorts on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the National Hurricane Center said.

Rina's top winds are 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, up from 80 mph earlier, according to an NHC website advisory at 5 a.m. Miami time. It's the sixth hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic storm season that runs from June through November.

"Strengthening is forecast during the next day or so" as the storm spins over warm waters off the north coast of Honduras, the center said. Rina may become a major storm later today or tomorrow, the NHC said.

Mexico issued a hurricane watch from north of Punta Gruesa to Cancun, which means hurricane conditions are possible within the area and readied 1,130 storm shelters in the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun and Cozumel. The country also declared a tropical storm watch for the east coast of the Yucatan from Chetumal to Punta Gruesa, the NHC said.

Rina Nearing Resorts

Rina is forecast to approach Cancun in two days, then curve east toward the west tip of Cuba by the weekend, the NHC's tracking maps show. The system is about 320 miles east-southeast of Chetumal, moving west-northwest at 3 mph.

The center forecasts Rina's winds will strengthen to at least 120 mph, a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale with the power to snap trees, blow down poorly built homes and create a "high risk of injury or death to people, livestock and pets due to flying and falling debris."

Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extend 15 miles from its core and tropical storm-force winds of 39 mph or more reach out 115 miles, the NHC said.

The center is also monitoring a low-pressure system just north of Curacao that's producing thunderstorms over the southeastern Caribbean. The system has a 40 percent chance of forming into a tropical cyclone in the next two days, the center said in a weather outlook.

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