This is an exceedingly rare satellite loop for the East Pacific. Last night, Hurricanes Polo and Odalys rapidly intensified SIMULTANEOUSLY within just 1,000 miles of each other, reaching 180 MPH and 130 MPH peak strengths at exactly the same time. El Niño-fueled hyperactivity.

NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters just recorded a surface wind gust of ~190 MPH inside the eyewall of Hurricane Polo, while a deployed drone flying at 500 meters above sea-level measured winds exceeding 230 MPH. We are watching one of the all-time most extreme Western Hemisphere storms on record unfold before our eyes tonight.

Hurricane Polo’s satellite presentation has taken a turn for the bizarre this morning. In the NW quadrant, a massive cryovolcanic eruption of cold-boiling convection is spilling over into the CDO, becoming more massive than the actual core itself and pressing in on the eyewall as an ongoing EWRC buckles the storm’s symmetry. The onset of this new EWRC and asymmetry means that Polo is now unlikely to reach a 2nd 175+ MPH peak, as was previously forecast. Nevertheless, the Hurricane still has some remaining time over heated, high-octane seawaters before turning north into Baja California.

The NHC is now forecasting that Category 5 Hurricane Polo could soon achieve a secondary peak intensity of 175 MPH (280 kph) sustained winds. If this verifies, Polo would become the FIRST known Pacific Hurricane to attain two separate 175+ MPH peaks.