Study Finds Climate Change Strengthened Hurricane Polo More Than El Niño
A study by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central found that global warming, primarily from burning fossil fuels, contributed more than El Niño to the extreme strength and duration of Hurricane Polo in the Pacific Ocean. It said climate change…
Detroit, MI, October 15, 2026 —
A study by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central concludes that global warming was a larger contributor than El Niño to the extreme strength and duration of Hurricane Polo in the Pacific Ocean.
The study found that climate change made the conditions fueling the storm 23 times more likely. El Niño made those conditions 14 times more likely, according to the findings. The analysis also attributed about 6 mph of additional wind speed to climate change and about 5 mph to El Niño.
The findings distinguish between two influences on the storm: long-term warming, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and the El Niño phenomenon. In the study’s assessment, both contributed to conditions associated with Polo, but climate change had the larger influence on the measures described.
The information provided about the study does not include its publication date, the researchers’ methods, or the specific area of the Pacific where Polo occurred. It also does not provide the storm’s dates, its measured peak wind speed, or further details about how the study assessed the storm’s duration. Those details are not available in the summary of the findings.
The reported figures describe how likely the study found the storm-fueling conditions to be under the influence of each factor, as well as the estimated wind-speed contributions. The summary does not provide additional findings or statements from the researchers.
Story summarized from the original created by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press on www.clickondetroit.com, see more information here.
