Hurricane Patricia—the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded—made landfall on Mexico’s west coast last Friday as a powerful category five, the first scale-topper to strike North America in eight years. The storm managed to pack winds of 200 MPH before making landfall, which is about as strong as a tropical cyclone can get—as far as we know, anyway.
Hurricane Patricia is making its way inland this evening after making landfall on Mexico’s west coast about 55 miles northwest of Manzanillo. The storm had astonishing winds of 165 MPH at landfall. Patricia became the strongest hurricane ever recorded after it maxed-out with 200 MPH winds for about 18 hours on Friday. The storm is also one of the strongest to ever make landfall in North America.
Shortly after midnight on October 23, 2015, a group of courageous men and women flew into the center of Hurricane Patricia and landed in the history books. With measured winds of 200 MPH, Hurricane Patricia became the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded anywhere on Earth. Let that sink in for a moment.
Astonishing meets record-breaking. Category five Hurricane Patricia exceeded all odds early Friday morning, with a Hurricane Hunter aircraft recording maximum sustained winds of 185 MPH and a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars. By air pressure, this is now the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific, and it ties with 1997’s Hurricane Linda as the basin’s strongest storm by one-minute sustained wind speed.
Hurricane Patricia is now a “potentially catastrophic,” scale-topping category five hurricane with maximum winds of 185 MPH. This is a rare scenario in which it cannot be hyped or overstated how much danger this storm poses to communities on Mexico’s west coast, including Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, and the numerous small towns between the two.
Hurricane Patricia, the umpteenth tropical cyclone to form in the Pacific Ocean so far this year, exploded into a ferocious category four hurricane this afternoon with winds of 130 MPH. The “extremely dangerous” hurricane could strengthen even further before making landfall on Mexico’s west coast on Friday evening.
Just one week after a powerful Hurricane Blanca stared down Cabo San Lucas with the steely gaze of its eye, a burgeoning tropical system in the eastern Pacific could threaten another major tourist destination: Acapulco, Mexico. A newly-developed tropical depression is expected to become a hurricane as it comes dangerously close to the city this weekend.
Hurricane Blanca (Blanca, not Bianca, much to the chagrin of drag fans the world over) is still hanging on over the eastern Pacific Ocean as it slowly makes its way towards the Baja Peninsula. The storm will make for a crappy weekend in Cabo—sorry about that—but it shouldn’t be too bad, as long as you’re not in the water.
Hurricane Blanca is only the second named storm in the three-week-old Pacific Hurricane Season, but it’s already the second category four hurricane to form there in the past two days. The storm will slowly move towards the Baja Peninsula this weekend, after which it might or might not drench the American Southwest.
When the United States sees a sweeping cold snap like the one we're in now, that cold air doesn't stop at the border. It can continue blowing south into Mexico and race across the Gulf. This cold air can create a powerful jet of wind in southern Mexico known as the Tehuantepecer.
In the worst case scenario come true, the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula took a direct hit from Hurricane Odile last night. The storm, a category three with winds of 125 MPH at landfall, caused colossal damage to the heavily-frequented tourist destination, including Cabo San Lucas.
Hurricane Odile (pronounced "oh-DEAL") is a category four hurricane this afternoon with winds of 135 MPH. The storm is on a direct path towards the Baja California, and the worst winds are expected to rake much of the peninsula over the next few days.
