Bud gets a little sister

Tropical Depression 4-E turned into Tropical Storm Carlotta overnight as the sustained winds reached 40 mph. Bud strengthened somewhat to a 95 mph Category 2 hurricane as well. This morning, things are looking a bit better for Carlotta and a bit worse for Bud. Hurricanes derive their energy from warm ocean water beneath them, and as you can see from this diagram, because of the currents in the Pacific, cold water intrudes relatively far southward. There's only a long roughly rectangular corridor extending west from Mexico where Eastern Pacific hurricanes can be sustained. Any storm that heads just a bit northward is rapidly removed from its energy source. Bud is now tracking just a bit more northward, and paying the penalty, in that he's no longer likely to have time to reach Category 3. Carlotta, however, isn't moving north quite as fast as expected, and thus should have a little longer to build up her intensity.