Cristina Weakens Back to Category Three Hurricane

Hurricane Cristina has weakened into a category three storm as it moves far off the Pacific coast of Mexico, U.S. forecasters said Friday.

At around 0300 GMT, Cristina had maximum sustained winds of nearly 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour and was centered 285 miles (465 kilometers) southwest of the city of Manzanillo, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm is expected to keep weakening over the next 48 hours, the center said.

Classification of a hurricane's strength is based on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson scale, with five denoting the most intense winds.

Early Thursday the storm had been upgraded from category three to four.

"Swells generated by Cristina are affecting portions of the southwestern coast of Mexico. These swells should begin to subside on Friday," the center said.

Photo Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons