Isaias suddenly strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane as of Friday morning, Oct. 9, and remained on course to hit the Pensacola-Panhandle area of Florida with more than six feet of storm surge, strong winds and as much as 15 inches of rainfall. “Just-received data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that …
Polo’s top winds reached 180 miles (290 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 5 storm in the five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale. The intensification ties Polo with Super Typhoons Bavi and Sinlaku for the title of the Northern Hemisphere’s strongest storm this year, said Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher and seasonal forecaster with Colorado State University. …