The ongoing El Niño climate pattern is driving stark contrasts across the world's oceans, fueling a surge of intense hurricanes in the Pacific while keeping the Atlantic season unusually quiet. In the eastern Pacific, higher sea-surface temperatures and weaker high-altitude winds have created ideal conditions for storm activity. The basin has already produced 22 named storms and 12 hurricanes—including 10 major hurricanes—surpassing the total seen in a typical full season, even with two months still remaining.
Among the season's powerful storms, Hurricane Polo underwent rapid intensification, generating wind gusts of 180 mph (285 km/h) fed by warm ocean waters. Polo was also part of a rare cluster, churning simultaneously alongside Odalys and Nolo. This marked the second time in a single month that three Pacific hurricanes have existed at once—a phenomenon not recorded since 2015, following a similar trio formed by Lowell, Karina, and Marie in early September.
In sharp contrast, the Atlantic Ocean has remained remarkably calm. El Niño tends to increase wind shear over the northern Atlantic, creating opposing winds that tear developing storms apart and limit their ability to organize. As a result, the basin has seen only one hurricane so far: Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.
Isaias set a new record as the latest-forming first hurricane in the Atlantic during the satellite era, which began in the 1960s, breaking the previous record of September 11 recorded in 2002 and 2013. By this point in an average season, the Atlantic would typically see ten named storms, five hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. This year, it has recorded just eight tropical storms and a single hurricane, showing how one climate pattern can reshape storm activity across opposing oceans.