Hurricane Aletta strengthened to a Category Four storm in the eastern Pacific Friday, generating swells that could produce life-threatening surf in Mexico's Baja California peninsula, US weather forecasters said.

Though packing fierce winds of 140 miles (220 kilometers) per hour, Aletta was more than 500 miles from Manzanillo, Mexico and was on a northwesterly track away from the mainland, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

It formed on Wednesday as a tropical storm but by Friday had intensified into a Category Four hurricane, one notch below the most dangerous storms on the five-point Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

"Swells generated by Aletta will begin to affect portions of the coast of west-central mainland Mexico and the west coast of Baja California Sur later today and will continue through the weekend," the hurricane center said.

"These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," it added.

But the forecasters predicted the storm would rapidly weaken over the weekend and subside to tropical storm strength by Sunday.

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Aletta becomes first hurricane of east Pacific season
Miami (AFP) June 8, 2018
The Aletta storm off southern Mexico on Thursday became the first hurricane of the east Pacific season, but it is not a threat to the coast, US meteorologists said. Aletta, which formed Wednesday as a tropical storm, escalated to a category one hurricane - on a scale of five - when it reached maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour), according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. Its gusts are blowing out at sea around 455 miles southeast of Manzanillo -- ... read more