Hurricane Polo has rapidly intensified off the coast of Mexico to become one of the most powerful storms of the season in the Pacific Ocean.
According to Associated Press, Hurricane Polo grew into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades on Tuesday, September 22, and it was expected to skirt Mexico’s southwestern coast as a Category 5 hurricane.
Polo was an “extremely dangerous” storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (265 kph), the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in an update from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft that was sent into the cyclone.
It was the third Category 5 hurricane of the Pacific season, following Genevieve and Lowell earlier this year. Category 5 is the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, reflecting that a storm has maximum sustained winds exceeding 157 mph (253 kph).
Polo was centered 210 miles (338 kilometers) south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and nearly stationary over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday night.
The hurricane center said Polo was expected to start a slow but sharp turn northwest during the night and then travel in a generally west-northwestward direction over the next several days.
‘Strongest storms ever’ in the Pacific
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in her morning press briefing that experts had indicated that the hurricane was not likely to touch land.
The NHC said hurricane-force winds are happening up to 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the storm’s center and tropical storm-force winds up to 105 miles (169 kilometers) away.
The hurricane set residents along Mexico’s Pacific coast on edge once again after being walloped by powerful cyclones a number of times in recent years.
Beaches emptied out and dark clouds swirled above choppy seas, while Mexican authorities temporarily suspended classes Tuesday in a number of areas.
Mexico’s navy shut down ports in the states of Guerrero and Michoacán and warned civilians and fishermen to take care.
