Climate
Hurricane Polo intensifies to rare Category 5 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast
September 23, 2026 at 05:25 AM
Hurricane Polo rapidly intensified into the season's third Category 5 storm off Mexico's southwestern coast, with forecasters predicting heavy rain but no landfall.
- A NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft recorded sustained winds near 180 mph (285 km/h) after Polo intensified from a tropical storm within 24 hours.
- The National Hurricane Center called the storm "extremely dangerous," forecasting up to 8 inches of rain and life-threatening flooding and mudslides in southwestern Mexico.
- President Claudia Sheinbaum said Polo will not make direct landfall but warned residents of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan to stay vigilant.
- Daily sea-surface temperatures in the central-eastern Pacific reached 3.05C above average on 19 September, exceeding the previous 2015 El Niño record of 3.02C.