Bold NOAA hurricane hunters ventured into the eye of Category 5-rated Hurricane Polo this week, revealing the true size of the gigantic storm.

Hurricane Polo is expected to make landfall in Baja California Sur next Monday or Tuesday, with some impacts barreling towards Southern California through the weekend and into next week.

Video footage showed a NOAA aircraft nicknamed “Miss Piggy” punching through the eye-wall of the powerful storm and into a thick, intimidating cloud circle.

“Ride along from the front of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) P-3 #NOAA43 ‘Miss Piggy’ as the crew flies through the storm during a recent mission,” NOAA Hurricane Hunters posted on Facebook.

“These flights gather vital data to help improve forecasts and support NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory’s rapid intensification research.”

Measurements like temperature, humidity, and wind data are taken to assist forecasters in predicting where the storm will go.

A direct California strike currently appears unlikely, but so-called “spaghetti models” show a handful of potential tracks carrying Polo or its remnants toward the Golden State, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas over the next seven to 10 days.

Southern California could be the first part of the US to feel Polo’s wrath, even if the hurricane itself stays safely out at sea. 

Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, told the Los Angeles Times that elevated surf could collide with high tides Monday and Tuesday, a potentially messy combination that could increase the threat of coastal flooding in California.

The National Weather Service is also forecasting elevated surf and powerful rip currents along Southern California beaches beginning this weekend and stretching into next week as several southerly swells roll toward the coast.

“This is one of the strongest storms ever in the (Pacific) Basin,” said Kristen L. Corbosiero, professor at the University at Albany’s Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences.

That could be particularly unnerving in Long Beach and Newport Beach, where waterfront residents are still cleaning up from a brutal pounding over Labor Day weekend.

Both cities are preparing for the storm with massive sand barriers to battle the waves.

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