Hurricane Patricia Hits Category 5 En Route to Mexican Coast

weatherunderground.com ^ | 10/23/15 | Dr. Jeff Masters

[uglybiker]

History is being made tonight in the Northeast Pacific as Hurricane Patricia churns about 200 miles off the coast of Mexico, south-southwest of Manzanillo. With its 11 pm EDT Thursday advisory, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Patricia to Category 5, with top sustained winds of 160 mph and a central pressure of 924 millibars. Hurricane warnings are now in effect for the coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, including Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, with a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning eastward to Lazaro Cardenas. Update: Late Thursday night, an Air Force Hurricane Hunter flight captured some of the most extreme observations ever recorded in 70 years of reconnaissance activity. Based on flight-level winds of 179 knots (206 mph), NHC upgraded Patricia's strength at 12:30 am EDT Friday to 185 mph. The estimated surface pressure of 892 mb is the lowest on record for the Northeast Pacific, and it ranks #3 for the entire Western Hemisphere behind only Wilma (882 mb, on October 19, 2005) and Gilbert (888 mb, on September 13, 1988). A surface reading of 892 mb was recorded at Key West during the Labor Day hurricane (September 2, 1935).

Satellite image of Hurricane Patricia at 0347Z Friday, October 23, 2015 (11:47 pm EDT Thursday).

Visible satellite image of Hurricane Patricia close to nightfall, at 2345Z (7:45 pm EDT) Thursday, October 22. 2015. Image credit: NOAA and CIMMS/SSEC/University of Wisconsin.

[caww]

I thought this video was like sitting in their house watching the hurricane as it toppled a couple trees...no theatrics nor ‘special’ drama music nobody likes....just what you might expect if it passed thru your own front yard....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHjx3Rdkqg

[daniel1212]

Which, depending on jet stream and fronts and other factors, could bring much rain to NE, correct?

[Vision]

Thanks

[kingu]

Only pretty sure that that video is from Europe looking at the license plates on the cars, not to mention the building styles, yield sign, etc.

[Cvengr]

...or a school of sharks with fricking lasers on their heads, having been sucked up by a water spout and now being dropped on the doomed residents of this sleepy little Mexican village....

[SaraJohnson]

Lord, have mercy! Those poor people.