Category 5 Hurricane Polo is 'one of the strongest storms ever'
Hurricane Polo has intensified into a Category 5 storm off the Pacific coast of Mexico, prompting warnings and emergency preparations. While the storm is not expected to make landfall, authorities have closed ports and suspended classes due to the threat of dangerous winds and high waves.
Why it matters
Extreme weather events like Category 5 hurricanes pose significant risks to coastal infrastructure, local economies, and human safety, exacerbated by current climate patterns.
MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Polo has grown into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades, and it was expected to skirt Mexico's southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm.
Climate El Niño is here, so what does it mean? Polo was an "extremely dangerous" storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (265 kph), the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Tuesday night.
Polo was centered 210 miles (338 kilometers) south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and nearly stationary over the Pacific Ocean. 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.
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