Mexico City  - Hurricane Rick, once a powerful category-five storm, had weakened and moved over the Pacific on Monday, with its dangerous winds threatening the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.

Downgraded to a category three on the five-level Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, Rick had sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour with higher gusts and was moving northwest at 15 kilometres per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

The hurricane was expected to start moving north-northeast Tuesday, and it was expected to pass close to the renowned tourist resort area of Los Cabos late Tuesday or early Wednesday. While experts did not think it would make landfall, it would cause heavy rain and strong winds.

Rick was expected to weaken further, but the NHC stressed that it was still expected to be a hurricane when it approached the southern tip of the Baja peninsula.

The Mexican states of Sinaloa, Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit were also watching the hurricane's progress.

On Colima's beaches - on Mexico's western coast - strong waves of up to 4 metres pulled down palm trees and caused other damage over the weekend.

"We were inside the house because it was raining hard. We had never seen anything like that. Overnight the waves started to hit the house and the water came into the house," resident Daniel Cabellos was quoted as saying by Mexican media.

"We had to get out, trying to salvage our things. But we couldn't, the sea took everything," said Cabellos, who lives on a humble wooden house on the beach.

Rick is the seventh hurricane of the season in the Pacific, only one of which has made landfall. In late August, Hurricane Jimena caused flooding in the Baja California Peninsula. (dpa)