(Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Agatha has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean and will grow into a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall in Mexico’s state of Oaxaca late Monday or early Tuesday.

The storm is the eastern Pacific’s first of 2022 and was about 220 miles (355 kilometers) south-southwest of Puerto Angel, Mexico, according to a 4 a.m. local time US National Hurricane Center advisory. A hurricane watch has been issued for Mexico’s southern coast from Salina Cruz to Punta Maldonado.

As much as 16 inches of rain could fall across Oaxaca, with some isolated areas getting even more, the hurricane center said. The nearby states of Chiapas and Guerrero could also receive heavy rain.

“Life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides may occur,” the agency said.

Agatha’s winds could reach 100 miles per hour before it comes ashore, making it a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. After striking land, it could cross the mountains and the remnants could re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico, but it probably won’t be a tropical system by then. 

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