You remember Hurricane Polo — the monster from Episode 1, the one that exploded from a tropical storm to a 180-mile-an-hour Category 5 in barely a day.
Yesterday morning, it came ashore in Baja California as a Category 2. And before it ever reached Baja, it killed: two children swept away with their home in Jalisco — their parents still missing — and a young woman carried off by the surf off Puerto Vallarta.
That’s the full-circle moment. Episode 1’s storm came home to roost.
A tale of two oceans
Because look at the two oceans. The Atlantic just named its eighth storm — Tropical Storm Hanna, drifting east of Bermuda, no threat to land. Eight named storms, zero hurricanes. The first time we’ve reached this deep into September without one in 112 years — the longest hurricane-free start of the satellite era.
Meanwhile, the very same super El Niño has the Pacific boiling: 18 named systems, eight hurricanes, and Polo — with the second-lowest pressure ever recorded in the East Pacific.
Back in April, the CAC called it: 12 named storms, a below-normal season. The forecast is on target — with October and November still to go.
Quiet does not mean safe
Here’s the Sarasota part: quiet here does not mean safe. Polo never came near Florida — and it still flooded towns and took lives. It only takes one. So we decide. On November 12th, the people making these calls are in one room in Sarasota.
The Atlantic is quiet — but the Pacific is boiling. Does a quiet season make you feel safer, or less prepared?
The Bunting Brief is Bob Bunting’s short-form series on the weather and climate forces shaping Florida’s Gulf Coast.
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