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Patricia, Strongest Hurricane Ever Seen In Eastern Pacific, Strikes In Mexico

Posted by timothy on from the battening-down dept.

CNN reports that Hurricane Patricia has made landfall in Mexico; Patricia is notable for having the third-lowest barometer reading ever recorded, and as "the strongest hurricane ever observed in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic oceans." Slate points out that at one point, "satellite estimates of Patricia’s intensity broke the Dvorak scale, peaking at 8.3 on the 8.0 scale. ... In fact, Patricia is now very close to the theoretical maximum strength for a tropical cyclone on planet Earth." The Weather Channel is tracking the storm's path, and predicts "catastrophic damage ... along a narrow path as the eye slices into the interior of southwest Mexico Friday night." Here's a map from the National Weather Service showing Patricia's track as well as projected path.

8 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. 190 mph winds by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It'll crush the ocean-front vacation homes of the wealthy,

    and,

    the only homes of the poor.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:190 mph winds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In other news bleeding heart liberals cry out for the poor citizens of Pompeii while taking the opportunity to bash the wealthy's island paradise.

      God the left can be so moronic.

  2. Re:Eye collapsed well before reaching shore by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful
    They've been saying that since the first news reports. Then it hit 33 degree celsius el Nino year coastal water temps and bam...Patricia was a big old five.

    My hat is off to modern day weather forecasting.

    I can view Doppler from the pocket cellie in a field far enough from town they can't hear you scream, but even now, predicting the path of a hurricane is still probabilistic.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. Re:Keep her in Mexico! by harshath.jr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    lol. funny. not. derivative.

  4. Re:Eye collapsed well before reaching shore by jklovanc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Winds were down over 50mph by the time it made landfall.

    Fifty miles per hour seems like a lot until you realize that means winds are still up to 150mph.

  5. Re:Eye collapsed well before reaching shore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The news I heard said it was down to 190mph (down 10 mph), and the eye looked like it was still there. Yes, it will decrease quickly now, but that will just mean lots of water and storm surge.

  6. Re:Get used to it by jklovanc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a chaotic system will produce much larger storms than ever before.

    I love it when people use phrases like "ever before" when they actually mean "in our brief recorded history".

  7. Re:How did it fit on a scale it broke? by theskipper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First, some background. Dvorak is a well-known blowhard tech pundit. His blowhardness is so great that meteorologists unanimously decided to adopt the scale to measure the strength of hurricanes.

    To put this in perspective, imagine being in the same room with one Dvorak. Then imagine the same room filled with eight point three Dvoraks. That's how strong this hurricane is.