Two Pacific Hurricanes Threaten Hawaii and Mexico in a Relentless Storm Season

A Pacific Under Siege

The Pacific Ocean is not letting up. As of Saturday, September 26, two powerful hurricanes are simultaneously bearing down on opposite sides of the Pacific basin — one aimed squarely at Hawaii's Big Island, the other pummeling Mexico's southwestern coast — in what is shaping up to be one of the most relentless storm seasons in recent memory.

The Pacific has seen 18 hurricanes so far this season and 41 named storms overall — unusually high numbers for this point in the season. Driving that frenzy is El Niño. The weather phenomenon is prompting major environmental shifts across the world, and it traditionally dampens the Atlantic hurricane season while revving up tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific with moist air and little wind shear. The result: a basin that has essentially become a storm factory, churning out dangerous systems faster than communities can recover.

Hawaii Braces for Catastrophic Flooding

Hurricane Nolo's maximum sustained winds increased to 105 mph (165 kph), making it a Category 2 hurricane, with its center located about 185 miles south of South Point, Hawaii. Nolo was forecast to strengthen to a major hurricane by early Saturday as it passed south of Hawaii, threatening to bring life-threatening flooding and high winds to parts of the island chain.

While the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of Nolo, forecasters say the most concerning factor is that the heaviest rain is likely to fall over the same southeastern region of the Big Island hit in August by Hurricane Lala — where the ground is still saturated from additional precipitation. In other words, the earth simply has nowhere left to put the water. Hawaii has been battered this year by major flooding in the spring, an earthquake, and two other hurricanes since mid-August. "In my 20 years of experience here, I've never seen three hurricane watches for the islands in the same year," said John Bravender of the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

Hawaiian Electric, the state's main power utility, said crews that had been restoring electricity on the island of Kauai after Hurricane Lowell earlier this month would move to Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island to prepare for Nolo. The state is essentially running a continuous emergency response, with repair crews redeploying before the last round of damage has even been fully addressed.

Mexico's Coast Takes a Beating from Polo

Hurricane Polo fluctuated between Category 4 and 5 — the two most powerful levels on the Saffir-Simpson scale — as it moved along Mexico's coast, and was expected to regain Category 5 status on Friday, September 25. Polo once again became a potent 180 mph Category 5 hurricane off the coast of Mexico, though its core of highest winds was forecast to remain well off the southwest coast.

In the port city of Lazaro Cardenas in the southwestern state of Michoacan, seawater swept through homes on Thursday, September 24, leaving wooden planks and furniture scattered across the streets, with restaurant owner Alicia Contreras reporting that 15-foot waves had severely damaged her property. Polo poses the greatest threat to Guerrero and Michoacan, two neighboring states with long coastlines dotted with small ports, tourist towns, and fishing villages — many of them poor communities that residents say are often left to fend for themselves during natural disasters.

A Season Without Precedent

Strikingly, for the first time in over 100 years, no full-blown hurricanes had formed in the Atlantic as of September 25 — a near-mirror image of what is happening in the Pacific, where the storms just keep coming. A third storm, Hurricane Odalys, was at Category 4 status and was still far from land, roughly 955 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

The compounding nature of this season is what makes it so dangerous. Saturated ground, exhausted emergency crews, and communities still rebuilding from previous strikes face each new storm with fewer resources and less resilience. If El Niño continues to fuel warm Pacific waters through the remainder of the season, the region may have little breathing room before the next system forms — and the next one after that.