Add The California Post on Google A colossal hurricane is battering Mexico’s Pacific coastline with monster waves, torrential rain and powerful winds as terrifying videos show the storm’s outer bands lashing coastal communities.
Hurricane Polo, which briefly reached Category 5 strength, was packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph Thursday, making it a Category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane was churning west-northwest, about 195 miles southwest of Zihuatanejo and 150 miles south of Manzanillo.
Dramatic videos circulating on social media showed the impact in Acapulco, where enormous waves slammed into the coastline as fierce winds whipped across the waterfront.
Dark, ominous clouds could be seen spreading over the Pacific as violent surf crashed against the shore, with residents also reporting torrential downpours and lightning as Polo’s outer rainbands moved over Mexico.
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The National Hurricane Center warned that the storm’s swells could produce life-threatening surf, rip currents and coastal flooding, while tropical-storm conditions were occurring along portions of the coast.
Polo’s hurricane-force winds extend as far as 40 miles from its center, while tropical-storm-force winds stretch outward up to 125 miles, forecasters said.
The storm has already prompted Mexican authorities to close several Pacific ports as dangerous seas, flooding and heavy rain threatened coastal communities.
The NHC expects another 2 to 4 inches of rain, with isolated totals reaching 6 inches, across portions of Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit.
AccuWeather expects Polo to eventually turn toward the Baja California Peninsula, with a possible landfall late Sunday into Monday after weakening.
Nicholas Arman, an AccuWeather hurricane expert, said the storm could also pull moisture toward Texas if its projected track holds.
“This is textbook El Niño impacts where the strong tropical development in the Pacific ultimately pushes moisture into the southwestern US,” Arman told Reuters.
California is not currently expected to take a direct hit, but the storm could still be felt along the Southern California coast.
Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Ventura Country Star Thursday that San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties could see 4- to 7-foot swells and dangerous rip currents in the coming days, along with increased humidity and a small chance of rain.
The latest NHC forecast shows Polo moving away from southwestern Mexico, although fluctuations in strength remain possible over the next several days.
The storm’s explosive development has made it one of the most powerful systems seen in the eastern Pacific this season, after Polo rapidly intensified from a tropical storm earlier this week.
