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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
And this is one of the most powerful hurricanes in the history of observations.
The Pacific cyclone Polo strengthened sharply in just one day 22, transforming from a tropical storm into a powerful Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds reaching 290 kilometers per hour. According to data from the U.S. National Hurricane Center, the storm moving off the southwest coast of Mexico 23 weakened to a 4 category in September, but by dawn of 24 September it had strengthened again to 5 category, Live Science reports.
As it moves northwest, Polo is expected to bring heavy rainfall to parts of the southwestern coast of Mexico; some areas could receive up to 20 centimeters of rain. Forecasts indicate the hurricane will not make landfall, but intense rains could cause floods and landslides.
Polo became one of the strongest hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific in history. In terms of strength, it is surpassed only by Hurricane Patricia, which raged in 2015 year. But what made it so powerful? And did a “super El Niño” play a role?
Role of El Niño
“The rapid intensification of tropical cyclones is a phenomenon we observe worldwide several times a year. The main conditions for this are high sea surface temperatures, weak wind shear, and atmospheric characteristics at high altitudes that allow air to move quickly out of the upper part of the hurricane,” said Julian Hemming, environmental scientist and researcher at the UK Met Office.
Hurricane Polo intensified as it moved over exceptionally warm Pacific waters linked to an exceptionally strong El Niño that formed this year.
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that develops in the tropical Pacific Ocean, typically every two to seven years. It begins when waters in the eastern part of the tropical Pacific become unusually warm. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines El Niño conditions when the temperature of these waters is at least 0,5 degrees Celsius above average, along with changes in wind, sea surface pressure, and rainfall that accompany the phenomenon.
The term “super El Niño” is not scientific, but it denotes a very strong manifestation of this phenomenon when sea surface temperatures exceed the average by two degrees Celsius.
As Hemming noted, unusually warm ocean waters supplied Hurricane Polo with abundant heat and moisture, and high humidity and weak winds in the upper atmosphere allowed thunderstorm processes to develop and intensify without being hampered.
Additionally, Polo formed a compact, well-defined core that concentrated the storm’s energy over a relatively small area, contributing to its rapid intensification. All of this together created a “thermal engine” that enabled the hurricane to gain strength at a remarkable rate.
“The rapid and sudden growth of Polo indicates the dominance of a so-called super-El Niño this year; on Monday this phenomenon set a record, becoming the most powerful in the entire history of observations and triggering a whole cascade of extreme weather events around the world,” Hemming said.
According to the latest data from the World Meteorological Organization, current El Niño could become the strongest on record and last at least until February 2027 year. This will lead to an increase in extreme weather events: drought in some regions, while others may face stronger storms, heavy rainfall, and floods.
As a reminder, according to Climate Impact Lab climatologists, from June 2026 year to February 2027 year, due to additional warming linked to super-El Niño, about 451 thousand people could die. These losses would add to those already caused by heat related to the climate crisis.
Researchers emphasize that El Niño’s consequences will extend beyond heat alone. Mortality from droughts, wildfires, and floods is also expected to rise.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Тропічний шторм «Поло» перетворився на ураган лише за 24 години: чи винен у цьому «супер Ель-Ніньо»?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.
