Hurricane Polo Reaches Category 5 Off Mexico, Intensifies Rapidly Near Zihuatanejo

Polo intensifies near Mexico

Hurricane Polo intensified into an extremely dangerous Pacific cyclone and was expected to skirt Mexico's southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday night.

The hurricane center said Polo had maximum sustained winds of 265 km/h, and it reported Polo was nearly stationary early Wednesday about 300 kilometres south of Zihuatanejo in Guerrero state and 540 kilometres southeast of Manzanillo.

The storm was forecast to turn sharply to the northwest during the day and then move in west-northwest over the next several days, while the NHC said hurricane-force winds extend up to 65 kilometres from Polo's centre and tropical storm-force winds up to 169 kilometres from the eye.

Kristen L. Corbosiero, professor at the University at Albany's department of atmospheric and environmental sciences, said, "This is one of the strongest storms ever in the [Pacific] Basin," as the NHC wrote in a report that it was "truly remarkable" how quickly Polo gained strength in the past 24 hours.

Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University, attributed Polo's rapid intensification to El Niño, saying it has fuelled droughts and floods and that "There are all the ingredients that hurricanes need to get really strong really fast."

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Winds, watches, and rain

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Polo continued to swirl off Mexico's southwestern coast early Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds decreasing to 150 mph.

The hurricane center said Polo was located about 165 miles off the coast of Zihuatanejo in Guerrero, and it warned that heavy rainfall "may produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain."

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm warning from Tecpan de Galeana in Guerrero to Punta San Telmo in Michoacán, and it issued a tropical storm watch from Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula in Jalisco.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a weather alert instructing citizens to avoid water and beaches and to heed warnings from Mexican authorities, writing, "Even if the storm does not make direct landfall, heavy rain may produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides."

The embassy also warned that hazardous ocean conditions could produce deadly rip currents and rogue waves, while the NHC said tropical storm conditions were expected along the Pacific coast in Guerrero, Michoacan and Colima states Wednesday into Thursday.

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El Niño and regional risk

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said experts indicated Polo was not likely to touch land, while the NHC said hurricane-force winds were still extending outward from the storm's centre. The BBC reported that the Mexican National Weather Service (SMN) said Polo had sustained winds of 265 km/h and gusts up to 322 km/h, and it said the storm was moving northwest parallel to the Mexican Pacific coast. The BBC said the SMN warned that "The precipitation produced by this system could cause landslides" and urged residents to stay alert to SMN advisories and follow Civil Protection recommendations.

The BBC also said Polo was driven by the El Niño phenomenon, and it quoted Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the UK Met Office, saying, "Scientists are still evaluating whether the impacts will be proportional to its magnitude." The BBC added that El Niño can reduce hurricane activity in the Atlantic while increasing hurricane and storm formation in the Pacific, and it said 2026 had set a record for the longest start to a season without a hurricane in the Atlantic.

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