Hurricane Patricia has gone from merely Cat 5 strength to ludicrously strong. As in sustained 200 MPH winds with gusts to 245. NOAA’s latest observation of it states, "
As noted above, pressure is listed at 880 mb, cloud tops last night were measured at around -110 F. Landfall is projected somewhere in the vicinity of Manzanillo, MX. It is projected to weaken slightly, but still hit as a high Cat 4, low Cat 5.
Western Mexico in this area doesn’t usually get a lot of these types of storms. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the damage and death toll from this storm to be in the ballpark of storms like Hurricane Mitch. Models predict the storm to cross Mexico, dissipate, but still have a large amount of energy enter the Western Gulf of Mexico. I imagine this will increase the already large amount of rain that Central and North Texas is projected to receive.
And I forgot the link to the NOAA observation and discussion in question, here. Weather Underground’s Dr. Jeff Masters on Patricia, here.
This is going to be really bad for Mexico, and probably unpleasant for Texas and points north, depending on how the residual storm energy interacts with what is already going to be a mess in Texas.
“That’s almost like an F4 or F5 tornado that can be 5 or 6 miles wide, just tearing up the coast as it makes landfall,” said Myers, the CNN meteorologist. “… Can you imagine being the center of this eye, … and then get hit by the eye wall doing 200 mph?”:eek:
Quick question, I know that pressure is related to hurricane strength, but how? When it has really low pressure, what is physically happening that makes the winds faster?
I’m in the airport at Atlanta and just met a guy whose family lives there and who owns a bunch of ocean front property there. His family got out to Guadalajara, and he’s hoping the mountains dissipate the storm, but he’s never seen anything like this. I feel for the guy–this looks like a monster.
I saw the aerial photos on the morning news. It’s stunning in its size. I hope the Mexican government is showing some sense and evacuating that entire area as quickly as possible.
I don’t see how massive damage can be avoided, at least not property damage. If people are able to evacuate far enough they can avoid mass death but this is going to be bad.
I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about this before today. Or maybe I just haven’t been paying much attention to the news.
You’re talking about millions of people, and I doubt there is anywhere to put them. Evacuating now (other than low-lying coastal areas) is basically just going to clog the roads and leave hundreds of thousands of people mostly exposed when the storm arrives. When Hurricane Charley came to Florida, lots of people in Tampa left town to avoid it; it pretty much missed Tampa and hit all the areas they had decamped to.
Slightly off topic: why is this a hurricane? Don’t they call them cyclones when they’re in the Pacific?
The sat maps make it look about as big as, well, Mexico. This is gonna be so messy. Given its size, is there much chance of it crossing Mexico and entering the Gulf? Or is it most likely just going to bump northward until it wrings itself out?