Hurricane John Rips Apart Tropical Storm Ileana Off Mexico Coast

(Bloomberg) -- Call it a case of sibling rivalry. Or maybe tropical-cyclone cannibalism. Whatever the name, Hurricane John is destroying a slightly older sibling.

Tropical Storm Ileana was named Sunday afternoon in the eastern Pacific, and John came a few hours later. Initially they were about 460 miles (740 kilometers) apart and running roughly on parallel tracks.

Ileana had a lot of promise at first. Closer to Mexico’s west coast, it prompted tropical storm watches and warnings in the port city of Manzanillo and the resort areas of Cabo San Lucas. Early Monday there was even a chance it would become a hurricane.

But by Monday evening, Ileana was starting to look like it was becoming part of the much larger John, according to a forecast discussion from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A few hours later, John was“bringing high wind shear over Ileana, tearing it apart,’’ said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The National Hurricane Center expects Ileana to dissipate Tuesday, and Mexico has dropped its warning and watches. Meanwhile John is forecast to get even bigger, becoming a major hurricane with winds of 120 miles per hour Wednesday.

Fortunately, John is expected to head northwest, far out to sea, where it shouldn’t be much of a threat.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Will Wade, Joe Richter

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