Forecasters are closely watching Tropical Storm Polo, which is expected to rapidly gain strength over the Pacific Ocean and could become a major hurricane by late this week, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
While Polo’s center is forecast to stay offshore for now, the storm could still bring tropical-storm-force winds, dangerous surf and heavy rainfall to parts of Mexico between Tuesday night and early Wednesday. The NHC warned that the rain could trigger life-threatening flooding and mudslides, particularly in mountainous coastal areas of southwestern Mexico. Forecasters said it’s still too early to know exactly where and how hard the storm will hit.
Coastal areas of the Mexican states of Guerrero, Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco could see 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain through Thursday, with isolated totals near 12 inches (30 centimeters). As of Monday, Polo had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 km/h) and was located about 240 miles (386 km) south of Manzanillo, moving northeast at just 5 mph (8 km/h).
Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Odalys is also expected to strengthen into a hurricane by midweek, though it remains far from land. In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Fay is weakening southwest of the Azores. Notably, this Atlantic hurricane season has gone longer than any on record without producing a hurricane, a trend meteorologists attribute to El Niño’s suppressing effects on storm development.
For full details and the latest forecasts, check out the original report from Telemundo.
Source: La tormenta tropical Polo se intensifica en el Pacífico y podría convertirse en huracán cerca de las costas de México (telemundo.com).
Image: NASA Goddard Photo and Video, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).