Hurricane Polo becomes second most intense eastern Pacific storm off Mexico

Hurricane Polo has exploded from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane in about a day off Mexico's Pacific coast, becoming the second most intense storm on record in the eastern Pacific.

A Hurricane Hunter aircraft found Polo had strengthened to maximum sustained winds of 290 km/h (180 mph) and a minimum central pressure of 892 mb at around 1pm CST on September 22, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a special update. The storm was then about 335 km south of the resort of Zihuatanejo in Guerrero state.

Only Hurricane Patricia, which bottomed out at 872 mb in October 2015 before hitting Mexico's Jalisco coast, has recorded a lower pressure in the basin. Polo added 177 km/h (110 mph) to its wind speed in 24 hours, second only to Patricia's 193 km/h (120 mph), weather.com reported, quoting an NHC specialist who said one rapid-intensification index was showing "percentages as high as I have ever seen".

Storms that strengthen this fast leave coastal authorities little time to prepare. Polo fed on unusually warm water of around 31C, heated by a strong El Niño, according to EarthSky, which counted only two hurricanes on record that intensified faster.

A NOAA Hurricane Hunter crew reported an even lower reading of 889 mb during the same afternoon flight, The Weather Network reported, a figure that spread quickly on social media. The NHC has not adopted it: its lowest official pressure for Polo is 892 mb.

By 9pm CST the storm had entered an eyewall replacement cycle, with winds easing to 270 km/h (165 mph) and pressure rising to 905 mb, the NHC said in its latest advisory.

"Polo continues drifting slowly as an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane," the centre said.

Polo was almost stationary about 575 km southeast of Manzanillo and is forecast to turn northwest and then west-northwest, keeping its core close to but just offshore of southwestern Mexico while remaining a major hurricane for the next few days. Hurricane-force winds extend 65 km from its centre and tropical-storm-force winds up to 165 km. Tropical Storm Odalys, further west, could interact with Polo early next week, EarthSky said.

Mexico has a tropical storm warning in place from Tecpan de Galeana to Punta San Telmo and a watch from west of Punta San Telmo to Playa Perula. The NHC expects 75-150 mm of rain, with isolated totals of 200 mm, across Guerrero and Michoacan, bringing a risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, while swells are generating dangerous surf and rip currents along the southwestern coast.

Mexico more than doubled its disaster insurance policy to $597mn in June ahead of the hurricane season, after floods and rains killed 64 people in October 2025.