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Erick rapidly intensified from a 40 mph tropical storm on June 17 into a Category 4 hurricane by midnight on June 19. Six hours later, Erick made landfall in extreme western Oaxaca state east of Punta Maldonado as a Category 3 with 125 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Erick brought Puerto Econdido more than 10 inches of rain and pushed boats and debris inland.
(MORE: Rating Hurricanes With The Saffir-Simpson Scale)
Erick became the first Eastern Pacific major hurricane on record to landfall in Mexico prior to August, in records dating to the late 1950s. The previous earliest major hurricane to landfall in western Mexico from the Pacific side was Kiko, on Aug. 26, 1989, in the southern Baja Peninsula, according to NOAA records.
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Erick became the Eastern Pacific’s second hurricane of the season early on the morning of June 18, almost four weeks ahead of the season’s average second hurricane pace. The season’s fifth storm has historically formed by July 23, based on the 1991-2020 average.