How Tropical Storm Nadine Became Hurricane Kristy in 72 Hours

In 72 hours, Tropical Storm Nadine made landfall in Belize, dissolved over Mexico and then organized again to strengthen into Hurricane Kristy.
The storm marks a name on both the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and the Eastern Pacific hurricane season lists. A true crossover storm maintains its name even as it moves over land and into another ocean, but AccuWeather meteorologist Isaac Longley told Newsweek that Nadine weakened to the point where it was no longer considered a tropical storm.
“This is not a true crossover storm,” Longley said, adding that such occurrences are rare because Central American mountains typically break up the storm system before it can emerge into the ocean. “It would have to maintain that tropical storm intensity.”
The remnants of Nadine reorganized on Monday and officially became Hurricane Kristy on Tuesday afternoon. The storm then experienced rapid intensification and quickly became a major hurricane. As of Wednesday evening, Hurricane Kristy was a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour, only 2 mph shy of a Category 5 hurricane.
Despite its foreboding strength, Kristy is expected to remain offshore and dissolve over the Pacific Ocean by early next week.
“Kristy is moving toward the west near 20 mph (31 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through Thursday. A gradual turn toward the west-northwest and northwest is expected on Friday and into the weekend,” the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its most recent forecast.
Although the storm isn’t expected to have direct impacts on land, meteorologists warned that it is likely to cause deadly rip currents in Baja California later this week.
The forecast comes only days after the NHC announced Tropical Storm Nadine’s landfall in Belize on Saturday afternoon. The storm then weakened to a tropical depression as it moved across Guatemala before dissipating over Mexico on Sunday.
The last NHC update for Nadine was on Sunday morning. The first advisory for Hurricane Kristy, then a tropical storm, was issued on Monday afternoon when the storm formed “well south of Mexico.”
Tropical Storm Nadine was the 14th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, and Hurricane Kristy is the 11th named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season.
As of Wednesday evening, Kristy is the only storm monitored by the NHC in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the NHC said tropical cyclone activity is not expected in the Atlantic for at least the next seven days. However, AccuWeather meteorologists are eyeing an area for potential development in the western Caribbean. Should a storm form, it will likely occur between October 29 and November 2. Its track will likely remain away from the United States.