Category 5 Hurricane Polo Barrels Toward Mexico’s Baja Peninsula

Hurricane Polo has roared back to Category 5 strength off Mexico’s Pacific coast, and forecasters say the monster storm is now on a collision course with Baja California Sur.

The National Hurricane Center placed Polo roughly 280 miles southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, packing maximum sustained winds of 180 mph. The storm is currently pulling away from the coast, moving west near 12 mph, but that track won’t hold.

Forecasters expect Polo to curve northwest by Saturday, swing north on Sunday, then bend northeast on Monday as it closes in on Baja California Sur before pushing into mainland Mexico.

Dangerous swells from Polo are already battering southwestern Mexico’s coastline and will spread north along west-central Mexico and toward Baja California Sur through the weekend. The hurricane center warned of life-threatening surf, rip currents and coastal flooding as the swells build.

Polo’s intensity could swing over the next day or two, with forecasters projecting the storm will start losing steam by Saturday.

Even as Polo weakens, its moisture plume threatens to trigger flash flooding hundreds of miles away. The hurricane center says the storm’s remnant moisture “may indirectly contribute to a heavy rainfall and flash flood threat” stretching into the southwestern United States.