Explosive Intensification for Hurricane Polo

What happened

In mid-September 2026, Hurricane Polo began as a tropical disturbance off the Pacific coast of Mexico. From there, Polo launched into a period of rapid intensification that left meteorologists searching for adjectives strong enough to convey what was happening.

Several ingredients came together off the Pacific coast of Mexico to generate one of the strongest storms the eastern Pacific basin has ever seen. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Aqua satellite and the MUR SST (Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution Sea Surface Temperature) project. “Polo went through a period of what can only be described as explosively rapid intensification,” said Gary Partyka, an atmospheric scientist with the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in an email.