Hurricane Dolly (2008) and warm sea surface temperatures. Dolly strengthened steadily beginning on July 21, and by the afternoon of July 22, it strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. At this point, the storm was located about 165 mi (265 km) east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. Steady strengthening continued that evening and into the morning of July 23, at which point Dolly reached Category 2 intensity while just east of the Rio Grande Valley at 10:00 that morning with winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 963 mbar. At 1:00 pm CDT
Hurricane Dolly (2008) from some of its rigs, and the Rowan Companies also evacuated one of their eight oil rigs in the Gulf. Also on July 21, Chevron announced that it was evacuating some of its workers from its oil rigs in the Gulf, but did not disclose how many were removed. On July 22, BP announced the evacuation of non-essential personnel from two of its rigs, and on July 23, Petróleos Mexicanos evacuated 66 people from one of its rigs. In spite of this, oil production was not expected to be affected by Dolly. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry activated 1,200 members