Hurricane Polo

Hurricane — Category 4 Polo is packing 125-kt (145-mph) winds, moving NW at 9 kt (10 mph). Moves inland over the coast Tue as a weakening hurricane.

At 200 PM MST (2100 UTC), the center of Hurricane Polo was located near latitude 18.7 North, longitude 112.5 West. Polo is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph (17 km/h). A northward motion is expected on Sunday, followed by a turn toward the northeast on Monday. On the forecast track, Polo is expected to approach the west coast of Baja California Sur on Monday, move across the peninsula Monday night and then approach northwestern mainland Mexico by early Tuesday. Maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph (230 km/h) with higher gusts. Polo is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Gradual weakening is forecast during the next couple of days, however Polo is expected to be a strong hurricane when it approaches Baja California Sur on Monday. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles (65 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outwar— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 25

This is the East Pacific · 17°N–35°N, 116°W–102°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.

Hurricane Polo is maintaining Category 5 strength with a clear eye while tracking toward Baja California Sur for landfall early next week. Several communicators note that the storm is expected to weaken substantially before arrival, reaching only Category 1 or 2 intensity by the time it hits the peninsula. This adds detail on the rate of weakening ahead of the official forecast for Monday landfall.

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