MEXICO CITY — Tropical Storm Narda weakened into a tropical depression on Tuesday as it hurled rain against Mexico’s Gulf of California coast, but forecasters said it was still likely to bring rain to the south-central United States in the coming days.

Forecasters said the storm’s tropical wind circulation was likely to dissipate Tuesday following its soggy days-long journey along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

On Monday, the storm whipped palm trees and drenched the resort city of Mazatlan with sheets of rain, swamping streets and causing some property damage. Earlier it passed over Puerto Vallarta, another popular beach destination.

Government agencies and local media posted images online of workers clearing refuse, apparently from signs or rooftops, as well as downed trees and power lines and shattered shopfront windows.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Narda’s maximum sustained winds had decreased to 35 mph (55 kph) by Tuesday morning, when its centre was about 130 kilometres southeast of Guaymas, a fishing and industrial port.

The Hurricane Center said Narda could drop an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain on the states of Sinaloa and Sonora, and 1 to 3 inches on Chihuahua before slogging across the border.

Mexican media reported two deaths occurred in the southern state of Oaxaca as Narda passed by on Sunday: a 26-year-old man who died while trying to cross a river in San Pedro Mixtepec and a 17-year-old boy who was swept away in a river at San Jeronimo.

Meanwhile in the Atlantic, Category 2 Hurricane Lorenzo was heading the northwestern Azores, which were expected to see hurricane conditions by early Wednesday.

Lorenzo had maximum sustained winds of 155 kph early Tuesday and was centred about 895 kilometres southwest of Flores in the western Azores, a Portuguese island chain. It was moving to the northeast at 35 kph.

The long-term projection could potentially bring it near Ireland and Scotland by Friday.

Lorenzo was previously a Category 5 hurricane, the strongest storm ever observed so far north and east in the Atlantic basin.