Hurricane Polo has strengthened into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades, becoming the third Category 5 hurricane of the Pacific season. Driven by a super El Niño, the storm is becoming one of the strongest ever recorded in the western hemisphere, with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center in Miami has described Polo as an extremely dangerous storm.
The storm's rainbands reached Mexico's Pacific coast on Wednesday, posing life-threatening flooding risks, heavy rain, and mudslides. Although Polo was expected to skirt Mexico's southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm, it weakened overnight and the coast is now expected to avoid a direct hit.
Meteorologists forecast that the system will turn sharply to the northwest before moving west-northwest over the next several days. Additionally, forecasters have warned that another system headed for Hawaii could cause catastrophic flooding later in the week.