Emilia was a tropical storm in the North Pacific Ocean Monday morning Pacific time, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
The tropical storm had sustained wind speeds of 45 miles per hour.
Emilia is the fifth named storm to form in the Eastern Pacific in 2024.
What does the storm look like from above?
Satellite imagery can help determine the strength, size and cohesion of a storm. The stronger a storm becomes, the more likely an eye will form in the center. When the eye looks symmetrical, that often means the storm is not encountering anything to weaken it.
Storms that form in the Atlantic or the Pacific generally move west, meaning Atlantic storms pose a greater threat to North America. If a storm forms in the Pacific close to land, it can bring damaging winds and rain before pushing out to sea.
However, an air mass can sometimes block a storm, driving it north or northeast toward the Baja California peninsula and the west coast of Mexico. Occasionally, a storm can move farther north, as Hurricane Hilary did last year, bringing damaging winds and intense rain to Southern California.
Hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific began on May 15, two weeks before the Atlantic season started. Both seasons run through Nov. 30.
Another factor for storm-watchers this year is the likely development of La Niña, the intermittent, large-scale atmospheric pattern that can affect weather worldwide.
In the Pacific Ocean, La Niña increases wind shear, which is a change in wind speed and/or direction with height. Those changes make it more difficult for storms to form. (In the Atlantic, La Niña has the opposite effect, reducing wind shear and increasing the chances for storm formation.)
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