A bizarre “death band” has appeared on the side of monster Hurricane Polo — freaking out weather watchers as the Category 4 storm churns toward the Baja California Peninsula.
Videos of Polo barreling across the Pacific showed a strange bubble-like band of pressure bulging from the storm, prompting a flurry of increasingly alarmed observations online.
“Hurricane Polo has developed a ‘death band’ on its western side. Normally these bands are very dangerous to those in its path,” a south Florida storm chaser wrote.
“Fortunately, it is currently over the water and is actually helping to take some of the fuel away from the hurricane.”
Another weather enthusiast was equally baffled by the monster’s unusual appearance.
“Polo is a weird, weird looking storm. Certainly one of the strangest super typhoon-equivalent storms I’ve ever seen,” the person wrote.
“Did Polo gain a parasite overnight? Stealing its energy,” another self-described weather nerd added.
The bizarre spectacle comes as Polo continues to rank among the most powerful storms ever seen in the eastern Pacific.
The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph Thursday, making it a Category 4 storm, after exploding from 85 mph to 180 mph in just 22 hours earlier this week. The National Hurricane Center said Polo is expected to remain an extremely powerful hurricane for the next several days.
As of Thursday, Polo was about 195 miles southwest of Zihuatanejo and 150 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, moving west-northwest at about 10 mph. The storm is expected to continue pulling away from Mexico before approaching the Baja California Peninsula early next week.
A direct hurricane strike on California is not currently expected, but the storm could still make its presence felt along the coast through powerful swells, dangerous surf and potentially coastal flooding.
Elevated surf could collide with high tides Monday and Tuesday, a potentially messy combination that could increase the threat of coastal flooding in California.
Long Beach and Newport Beach are preparing for the storm with massive sand barriers to battle the waves
