France 24 (English), on Climate, 12 October 2026

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One dead as Hurricane Simon creeps along Mexico's Pacific coast

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One dead as Hurricane Simon creeps along Mexico's Pacific coast

Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) (AFP) – Hurricane Simon killed one person, damaged property and triggered flooding as it inched along Mexico's Pacific coast, authorities said Monday.

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The storm did not make landfall and weakened to Category 2 on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.

The victim was a 71-year-old man who "died when a wall collapsed in Chilpancingo" in the southern state of Guerrero, Governor Evelyn Salgado said during the daily presidential press conference.

Simon was moving away from the coast, authorities said, adding that a rain alert remained in place and warning that waves of up to five meters were still expected in some coastal areas.

Flooding and landslides had already hit communities close to rivers and streams in the states of Michoacan and Colima.

Simon will approach Mexico's west-central coast between Wednesday and Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The latest official report from Mexican authorities indicates that "it will hit Mazatlan, Sinaloa, as a Category 1 hurricane," said national civil protection coordinator Laura Velazquez.

The tourist gem of Puerto Vallarta, which had been bracing for extreme weather, awoke Monday to clear skies and a rainbow, an AFP team observed.

Residents of the beach resort exercised along the seafront promenade as waves continued to crash with force.

Magda Flores, 55, told AFP she felt "much more at ease," voicing hope that shuttered businesses would reopen soon.

Another storm, Hurricane Rachel, meanwhile dissipated in Baja California state bordering the United States.

Ten people remain missing and one child was found dead, Governor Marina del Pilar Avila reported.

© 2026 AFP

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What we found (1)

France 24 reports Hurricane Simon's toll and forecast track from officials, and its only line on why the season is so intense names El Nino alone. It never tells the reader that human-caused warming has made intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.

  1. Leaves out the climate link

    Serious

    “The El Nino phenomenon, characterized by rising water temperatures in the Pacific, is fueling a more intense hurricane season in the region.”

    Why this matters
    France 24 explains the intense hurricane season with one cause only: El Nino, a natural ocean cycle. This is the only sentence in the article about why the season is so severe.
    The impression it gives
    A reader comes away thinking the deadly storms hitting Mexico's Pacific coast are the product of a natural cycle alone, and that nothing about a warming planet plays a part.
    The context
    Human-caused warming has made intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe. The article reports two hurricanes, a death, a dead child and ten missing people, but never once says that warming is loading the dice. The words climate change and global warming do not appear anywhere in the article.

    How we know

    • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
    • On the recordIt is unequivocal that human influence, chiefly the burning of fossil fuels, has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
    • Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    The El Nino phenomenon, characterised by rising water temperatures in the Pacific, is fuelling a more intense hurricane season in the region, while human-caused global warming is making intense hurricanes like this more frequent and more severe.

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