Tampico sits in northeastern Mexico, where a semi-arid climate is punctuated by the region’s most serious flood risk: hurricanes and tropical storms moving in from the Gulf of Mexico, particularly from June through November.
On Mexico’s Gulf coast at the mouth of the Panuco River, the city faces some of the country’s most direct hurricane landfalls. The devastating floods caused by Hurricane Alex in 2010, which struck the Monterrey metropolitan area, remain the reference event for how quickly mountain-fed rivers here can rise when a tropical system stalls nearby, and radar is essential for tracking these systems in real time. Learn more: Hurricane Season Radar Guide · Open the full Rain Map