MIAMI (AP) — Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 140 mph (225 kph). A storm of that strength or greater is considered a major hurricane. Simon could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches (25-50 cm) of rain over parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas receiving up to 30 inches, the center said.
The bulletin also urged residents to take immediate action to prepare. Simon is expected to bring heavy rainfall to parts of southwestern Mexico, possibly concentrated along Jalisco’s coast and in parts of Michoacan, Colima, and Nayarit. Forecasters warned on Friday of life-threatening flooding and mudslides. Jalisco suspended classes on Friday and Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating dozens of people from at-risk areas.
It also asked the tourism sector in Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for U.S. tourists, to ensure that both workers and visitors are fully accommodated in shelters or safe zones by Friday afternoon.
The AP report published by MSNBC gives a clear, well-sourced account of Hurricane Simon's strength, forecast rainfall and the evacuations in Jalisco. It never tells the reader that warming is making intense hurricanes and their extreme rainfall more likely, so the storm reads as weather with no wider cause.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s coast.”
Why this matters
The article reports a major hurricane bringing up to 30 inches of rain. In this sentence and in every other, it gives no word on what is loading such storms.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking Simon is a purely natural event, with nothing to do with the planet having warmed.
The context
Human-caused warming has made intense tropical cyclones and heavy rainfall more frequent or more severe. The article never says so, not even in one short line.
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)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “warming”.
Elsewhere in the article“some areas receiving up to 30 inches”
Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico's coast. Climate change is making intense hurricanes like this, and the extreme rainfall they bring, more likely.