Hurricane Dora strengthens off Mexico

Hurricane Dora has strengthened off Mexico's Pacific coast and could become a major hurricane within hours, U.S. weather forecasters say.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami classified Dora — which brushed southern Mexico on Wednesday, pounding resort coastlines with dangerous surf, according to AFP — as a Category 2 storm on Wednesday, as winds reached 105 miles per hour.

The latest bulletin placed Dora — the fourth named storm of this year's Pacific hurricane season — 215 miles south-southwest of the port city of Lazaro Cardenas.

Dora is expected to move nearly parallel to the coast of southwestern Mexico over the next two days.

Some NHC forecast models put the hurricane on track to affect the Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas later in the week.

In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Bret, moving northeast away from the Bahamas and well off the U.S. Atlantic coast,  was forecast to weaken to a tropical depression by Thursday, the AP reports.