Hurricane Polo intensifies into rare category 5 storm off the coast of Mexico

Hurricane Polo has rapidly intensified off the coast of Mexico to become one of the most powerful storms of the season in the Pacific Ocean. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft, operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), flew into the storm on Tuesday and recorded sustained wind speeds near 180 mph (285 km/h), with stronger gusts. NOAA's Miami-based National Hurricane Center called the storm "extremely dangerous" and said its intensification over 24 hours was "truly remarkable". The slow-moving storm is fuelling up on extremely warm waters caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon and is the season's third category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale.