Tropical storm Rick churned slowly toward the tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula Tuesday, after earlier being downgraded from hurricane status, US forecasters said.
With weakening winds at around 65 miles (100 kilometers) per hour, the storm system was a shadow of the Category Five monster it became over the weekend, said the US National Hurricane Center.
Giant waves whipped up by Rick caused one death on Sunday and forced the evacuation of some of Los Cabos' famous tourist beaches.
But the Miami-based NHC said early Tuesday that Mexico's government had discontinued a hurricane watch after Rick was downgraded to a tropical storm.
At 1800 GMT, Rick was 199 miles (320 kilometers) south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas and moving north near seven miles (11 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said.
The center of the storm was forecast to pass near the southern tip of Baja California late Tuesday or early Wednesday, the NHC added.
Rick was the seventh hurricane of the eastern north Pacific 2009 season.
Baja California also was battered in early September by Hurricane Jimena, which caused floods that killed at least one person.
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