Fabio has strengthened into a hurricane far off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean and could gather speed over the weekend, but is not expected to pose a threat to land, US forecasters say.

At 0700 AEST on Saturday, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of about 130km/h as it headed west-northwest at a speed of 16.09km/h, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC).

That general motion was “expected to continue for the next couple of days”, the NHC said. Fabio was a Category One hurricane on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale. “Some additional strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours or so,” the centre said.

The eye of the storm was about 828.64km south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Farther in the Pacific, Emilia weakened to a tropical storm some 1995km west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, with maximum sustained winds down to 80.45km/h.

It had spun rapidly into a Category Four storm on Tuesday and was forecast to dissipate by Sunday.