Hurricane Simon Lurks Off the Mexican Coast

What happened

Sustained winds reached 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour as it crept north-northwest. Simon’s eye was about 50 kilometers (30 miles) offshore, between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, when the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this image around 2:30 p.m.

Though it remained offshore, the storm lashed coastal areas with high winds and flooding—and produced remarkable rippling patterns in the upper atmosphere. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison Hurricane Simon, the latest in a long progression of tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific this season, passed close to the Mexican coast as a category 4 storm on October 11, 2026. The topography of the Sierra Madre mountains appeared to temper the storm’s intensity somewhat and shrink the size of its wind field, the NHC noted.