Newly formed Hurricane Willa rapidly gained force and grew into an "extremely dangerous" Category four storm in the Pacific off Mexico today.
It has a potential to make landfall on a western stretch of coast between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta in the coming days.
The US National Hurricane centre said
in an evening bulletin that the storm was "forecast to produce life-threatening storm surge, wind and rainfall over portions of southwestern and west-central Mexico beginning on [Wednesday]."
A hurricane watch was posted for a stretch of shore between San Blas and Mazatlan, while a tropical storm warning was in effect from Playa Perula to San Blas.
Hurricane force winds extended out 40km from the storm's core and tropical storm force winds were up to 130km out.
