Tropical Storm Franklin churned toward the tourist hubs along Mexico's Caribbean coast on Monday (local time), and is expected to strike the Yucatan Peninsula Tuesday just south of major resorts, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Franklin, which formed on Sunday, is located 249km east of Chetumal, the Mexican city near the country's border with Belize, and was closing in on making landfall at a speed of 21kph.
Officials from five towns along the coast in Quintana Roo state have already decided to close schools Monday and Tuesday.
Franklin is blowing maximum sustained winds of 97kph, and is expected to continue moving west-northwest over the next two days, the Miami-based NHC said in an advisory.
On that trajectory, it will likely pass near state oil company Pemex's major drilling projects in the shallow waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico, home to more than 80% of its crude production.
Pemex said the company is closely monitoring the storm, and that all facilities are operating normally.
The storm is expected to strengthen before it hits land.
Franklin is producing tropical storm-strength winds fanning out in a radius of 225km, which would put top beach resort Cancun in the path of the dangerous gusts.
A hurricane watch has been issued from Chetumal to Punta Allen, just south of the popular beach town of Tulum.
The NHC estimates that rainfall caused by Franklin along a large swatch of the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize will average between 8-15cm, with as much as 30cm possible in some areas.
"A dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 61-122cm above normal tide levels along the immediate coast near and to the north of where the center makes landfall," the NHC said it the advisory.
