'Extremely dangerous' Hurricane Polo intensifies to rare category 5 storm

Image source, CSU/CIRA & NOAA/Handout via REUTERS By Brandon Livesay Published 1 hour ago 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.

A Hurricane Hunter aircraft, operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), flew into the storm on Tuesday and recorded sustained wind speeds near 180 mph (285 km/h), with stronger gusts.

NOAA's Miami-based National Hurricane Center called the storm "extremely dangerous" and said its intensification over 24 hours was "truly remarkable".

The slow-moving storm is fuelling up on extremely warm waters caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon and is the season's third category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The storm is predicted to skirt the coast of south-western Mexico, but is not expected to make landfall, a warning from NOAA said.