Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Cancun and Riviera Maya weather alerts will be strengthened starting this year with the implementation of technology. Mexico says it is strengthening its weather warning system for the upcoming 2026 tropical hurricane season.
The weather news came after the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that the risks associated with tropical cyclones are real and increasing. Mexico weather forecasting and early storm warnings will be heightened with the use of artificial intelligence and technical cooperation.
Conagua, Mexico’s National Water Commission, made the announcement after participating in the 48th Hurricane Committee meeting. The three-day meeting was held this past week through the National Meteorological Service (SMN) in coordination with the World Meteorological Organization.
Conagua (Comisión Nacional del Agua) says Mexico is committed to the member countries of Region IV of the World Meteorological Organization to strengthen coordination and joint actions for the upcoming season.
Efraín Morales López, the General Director of Conagua, along with Fabián Vázquez Romaña, the General Coordinator of the SMN (Servicio Meteorológico Nacional), highlighted that regional cooperation, data exchange, the development of methodologies and timely communication have allowed Mexico and the regional member countries to significantly improve their forecasting and warning capabilities.
Before representatives of the 27 countries of North America, Central America and the Caribbean that make up the Committee, it was emphasized that in the context of climate change, it is essential to jointly strengthen observation, forecasting and communication capacities in order to deal with increasingly intense weather phenomena.
Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General, warned that the risks associated with tropical cyclones are real and increasing.
She noted that the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season saw three Category 5 hurricanes, marking only the second time in history that more than two storms reached that maximum intensity in a single season.
She also stressed that a single tropical cyclone making landfall can reverse years of development, and recalled the case of Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic basin.
Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as a category 5 on October 28, 2025 with record wind gusts of 400 kilometers per hour, the most intense storm to hit the island in almost a century.
It left behind catastrophic damage. According to the WMO, the name Melissa has since been retired from future hurricane names due to the deadly damage.
Saulo reported during the meeting that the Extraordinary World Meteorological Congress adopted reforms to the technical regulations on early warning services which will come into force in January 2027.
The aim, she said, is to strengthen coordination and capacity building under the principle that none of its members are left behind.
