Acapulco suffered some wind damage but flooding rains have been the mark of this month’s cyclones.

Carlotta was recognised as a developing tropical depression last Thursday, in the eastern Pacific, off the coast of the Mexican state of Guerrero.

It strengthened and headed directly for the coast, putting Acapulco into the tropical storm warning envelope.

By late Saturday, the winds were blowing at just over 100 kilometres per hour as Tropical Storm Carlotta followed the coastline past Acapulco.

Wind gusts were strong enough to bring down trees in Acapulco and many houses were flooded. The rain gauge recorded 72mm on Saturday night. The impact was relatively light and during Sunday, Carlotta went back out to sea.

At the moment, the sea surface temperatures along this part of the Mexican coast are a little lower than average. This is also true around Baja California and California itself. Offshore from Manzanillo, it is 26C, nearly three degrees below normal and not enough to sustain a hurricane.

Carlotta is the third named storm off the Mexican coast so far this month – the first two reaching, briefly, Category 4 status on the international Saffir-Simpson scale. The second, Hurricane Bud which was much further out in the Pacific, lost strength very quickly as it headed for Baja California.

Tropical Depression Carlotta is heading back to land now, with a likely complete disintegration over coastal Michoacan, the next state up from Guerrero. It may cause some more minor flooding.