Hurricane Polo

Hurricane — Category 1 Polo is packing 65-kt (75-mph) winds, moving NE at 9 kt (10 mph). Moves inland over the coast Tue as a weakening tropical storm.

At 500 AM MST (1200 UTC), the center of Hurricane Polo was located near latitude 26.9 North, longitude 111.7 West. Polo is moving toward the northeast near 10 mph (17 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue along with a significant acceleration this morning. On the forecast track, the core of Polo will cross the Gulf of California for the next several hours, then move inland over southern Sonora late this morning. Maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph (120 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is expected before Polo makes its second landfall in mainland Mexico. Rapid weakening is forecast later today when Polo moves well inland over mainland Mexico. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles (45 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km). The estimated minimum central pressure is 981 mb (28.97 inches).— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 35

Polo tracks over open water — no coast is in the outlook. Along its path, our forecast reads:

This is the East Pacific · 24°N–34°N, 114°W–104°W. Polo’s forecast track is the dotted spine — the labelled dots mark its position each day. Every cell is shaded by how many hours it spends inside Polo’s gale-force (≥34 kt · 39 mph) wind across the whole forecast, the damaging core counted double.

Read it two ways at once. Colour is the total — the hours of gale-force wind a place piles up. A slow storm writes its danger in duration, not in any single gust, so the longer the wind sits over a place, the deeper its colour. Opacity is confidence — solid where the official probability of that wind is high, faint where it is only a chance. So a deep, solid cell is a place the wind will work for a long time and likely will; a pale, faint one is a brief, uncertain brush at the edge of the cone.

One observer noted Hurricane Polo strengthening to category 4 intensity with improved structure the day before it reached Baja California Sur. Reports the next day described landfall on the west coast as a category 3 storm that brought dangerous winds and flooding, consistent with forecaster warnings of hurricane conditions, heavy rain, and flash flooding across Baja California Sur and into Sonora. Together these accounts underscored the progression from intensification to widespread impacts as the system moved onshore.

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