Tropical storm Amanda forecast to become hurricane today

Tropical storm Amanda is located southwest of Mexico and strengthening into a hurricane. But the hurricane is not expected to reach Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Amanda, located several hundred miles southwest of the southwestern coast of Mexico.

Amanda is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane this afternoon and then continue to strengthen to an weak hurricane during the day on Sunday.  By late Sunday evening, the National Hurricane Center is forecasting sustained winds of  to 60 mph.

Amanda is then forecast to weaken back to a minimal hurricane late on Monday.

The forecast track of Hurricane Amanda is expected to keep the storm - as a hurricane - away from Mexico. Tropical storm Amanda is currently moving toward the west-northwest at a speed of about 5 mph.  A decrease in forward speed and a turn toward the northwest are expected on Sunday.

Currently, tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 60 miles from the storm's center. As Amanda weakens it may turn back toward Mexico next week.

Amanda is the first tropical storm of the Pacific Basin season.

As The Christian Science Monitor reported, the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season is shaping up to be a mild one, according to forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

It's one of several seasonal hurricane forecasts anticipating a relatively quiet year.

The CPC's outlook calls for eight to 13 tropical storms during the upcoming season, which begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. Out of those storms, three to six are expected to form hurricanes. Of the hurricanes that form, one or two are expected to become major hurricanes – storms whose highest sustained winds exceed 111 miles an hour.

A below-average season, however, doesn't mean the US Gulf and East Coasts can breathe easy. The 1992 hurricane season produced only seven named storms. But one of them was hurricane Andrew, which struck south Florida as a Category 5 storm.