Mexico's Baja braces as Hurricane Polo nears landfall

Hurricane Polo closed in on Mexico's Baja California Sur threatening its Pacific coastline with destructive wind, flash floods and a storm surge before crossing the peninsula and making a second landfall on the mainland.

At 5 p.m. local time the US National Hurricane Center said Polo was set to initially come ashore as a Category 3 hurricane, though the likely strike zone is an area far less populated than the Los Cabos resort corridor at the southern tip.

The USNHC forecast the storm to then cross the Gulf of California and hit southern Sonora state early on Tuesday still at hurricane strength, before weakening rapidly inland.

Polo's effects could also reach the US after landfall.

The USNHC issued a wind advisory for parts of southern New Mexico and far west Texas into Tuesday night, expecting Polo's remnants to move inland.