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

At 2100 GMT, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour as it headed west-northwest at a speed of 10 miles per hour, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

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 center said.

The eye of the storm was about 515 miles south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in northwestern Mexico.

Farther in the Pacific, Emilia weakened to a tropical storm some 1,240 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, with maximum sustained winds down to 50 miles per hour.

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