Hurricane Polo

Hurricane — Category 4 Polo is packing 130-kt (150-mph) winds, moving WNW at 9 kt (10 mph). Moves inland over the coast Tue as a weakening tropical storm.

At 300 PM CST (2100 UTC), the center of Hurricane Polo was located near latitude 17.1 North, longitude 105.5 West. Polo is moving toward the west-northwest near 10 mph (17 km/h). A turn toward the west is expected later today and Friday, followed by a west- northwestward motion on Saturday. On the forecast track, the core of Polo is expected to move away from the coast of southwestern Mexico this afternoon and evening. Maximum sustained winds are near 150 mph (240 km/h) with higher gusts. Polo is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some strengthening is expected tonight. Gradual weakening is forecast to occur starting Friday night and Saturday. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles (65 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles (205 km). The minimum central pressure estimated from NOAA Hurricane Hunter ai— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 17

This is the East Pacific · 15°N–32°N, 117°W–104°W. Polo’s forecast track is the dotted spine — the labelled dots mark its position each day. Every cell is shaded by how many hours it spends inside Polo’s gale-force (≥34 kt · 39 mph) wind across the whole forecast, the damaging core counted double.

Read it two ways at once. Colour is the total — the hours of gale-force wind a place piles up. A slow storm writes its danger in duration, not in any single gust, so the longer the wind sits over a place, the deeper its colour. Opacity is confidence — solid where the official probability of that wind is high, faint where it is only a chance. So a deep, solid cell is a place the wind will work for a long time and likely will; a pale, faint one is a brief, uncertain brush at the edge of the cone.

Weather observers noted that Polo has strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane south of Mexico and stands as the third such storm of the season in the eastern Pacific. They agreed with the official forecast that the system will remain offshore yet still deliver rain to the coast, with one adding that winds have reached 160 miles per hour. Their comments reinforced that the core is expected to stay at sea while moisture moves inland.

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