Hurricane Polo Intensifies to Category 4 Storm Off Mexico's Coast
The storm is forecast to bring heavy rain to southwestern Mexico but is expected to remain offshore.
Hurricane Polo strengthened into a Category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific late Monday, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami forecasts that Polo may intensify further and reach Category 5 strength on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Polo was moving east-southeast at 5 mph and is expected to sharply turn northwest and west-northwest. This track means the storm will skirt the Mexican coast for several days without making direct landfall. However, heavy rainfall with the potential for flooding and landslides is anticipated for the coastal regions of Guerrero and Michoacán states through Thursday. Smaller amounts of rain may fall in coastal portions of Oaxaca, Colima, and Jalisco states.
A tropical storm watch has been issued for a segment of the coast, extending from south of Manzanillo in Colima state to Tecpan de Galeana in Guerrero state. This indicates that tropical storm conditions are possible within the next two days.
As of late Monday, Polo was centered approximately 330 miles south-southeast of Manzanillo.
Further west in the Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Odalys, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph on Monday, is forecast to become a hurricane by midweek, although it is currently far from land.
In the Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Fay has weakened to 40 mph southwest of the Azores and is expected to dissipate into a remnant low by late Tuesday. This season has seen a record start with no Atlantic hurricanes formed yet, attributed to the effects of El Niño suppressing storm development.