Hurricane Polo reached peak intensity in the eastern Pacific Ocean before sending tropical moisture toward Texas, where state residents faced a complex weather setup and a multi-day flood threat. According to the FOX 26 Houston weather team, relative humidity increased across Southeast Texas as temperatures hovered in the middle 90s ahead of a slow-moving cold front. That approaching boundary interacted with tropical moisture drawn from the Pacific, elevating rain chances through the end of the week.
Hurricane Polo Intensifies in the Eastern Pacific
Hurricane Polo evolved into a powerful Category 4 storm off the western coast of Mexico, according to data from the National Hurricane Center and NOAA. The storm underwent an extraordinary period of rapid intensification after forming, surging from a 40 mph tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph during a historic burst over record-warm eastern Pacific waters. El Niño conditions contributed to the regional pattern, with weekly sea-surface temperatures running 4 to 7 degrees above average across parts of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.
By Wednesday morning, Polo produced sustained winds of 150 mph with a central pressure of 922 millibars, retaining major hurricane status while tracking roughly 165 miles south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico. The hurricane’s core remained offshore near the southwestern coast of Mexico, where it generated heavy rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches, dangerous surf, and a risk of mudslides. While Polo’s center stayed away from the United States, its leftover atmospheric moisture streamed north and east toward the American Southwest and Texas.
Southeast Texas Flood Risks and Mid-Week Front
Global forecast models initially disagreed on the exact timing of the incoming precipitation, but meteorologists at FOX 26 Houston tracked the slow-moving front as it converged with Pacific moisture. Rain chances began climbing on Wednesday, with the heaviest downpours concentrated on Thursday and Friday. Southeast Texas faced a 2/4 risk for flooding on Thursday as the wetter, stormier weather pattern helped suppress afternoon high temperatures from the middle 90s.
Farther east, tropical activity in the Atlantic basin remained subdued. The FOX 26 Houston weather team reported that a tropical depression in the Atlantic continued to fizzle out, while an area of disorganized showers and storms east of Bermuda carried a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression by the middle of the week before ultimately tracking away from the U.S. mainland.
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