| CNN | - |
(CNN)
Patricia -- the strongest hurricane ever recorded -- barreled closer
and closer Friday morning to Mexico's Pacific coast, where residents
have been told to brace for its 200-mph sustained winds and torrential
rains.
Patricia, strongest hurricane ever recorded, menaces Mexico
Story highlights
- Mexican authorities dispatch officers, issue warnings as the hurricane nears its western coast
- Patricia turns toward the north and is forecast to make landfall late Friday afternoon or early evening
- World Meteorological Organization compares storm to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013
(CNN)Patricia
-- the strongest hurricane ever recorded -- barreled closer and closer
Friday morning to Mexico's Pacific coast, where residents have been told
to brace for its 200-mph sustained winds and torrential rains.
The
Miami-based meteorological center, in its 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET)
advisory, warned of a "potentially catastrophic landfall ... in
southwestern Mexico" late that afternoon or early evening. While its
strength could fluctuate, "Patricia is expected to remain an extremely
dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall."
Patricia
has potential to cause massive death and destruction over a large swath
of the Mexican Pacific coast, including the tourist hot spots of Puerto
Vallarta and Acapulco.
Citing
observations by hurricane hunters, Patricia is "the strongest hurricane
on record in the National Hurricane Center's area of responsibility
(AOR) which includes the Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific basins,"
according to a Friday morning forecast discussion.
The
closest contender, at this point, might be Hurricane Camille when it
battered the U.S. Gulf Coast in 1969. Regardless, Patricia looks to be
more powerful than that storm, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Katrina in 2005
and many others.
It's
already surpassed them in one way: Its central pressure reading -- the
weight of the air above a system -- which is a key measure of any
storm's strength.
The
early Friday central pressure recording of 880 millibars (the
barometric pressure equivalent is 25.98 inches) "is the lowest for any
tropical cyclone globally for over 30 years," according to the Met
Office, Britain's weather service.
Patricia's intensity is
comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013, the
World Meteorological Organization tweeted. More than 6,000 people died in Haiyan, due largely to enormous storm surges that rushed through coastal areas. Haiyan had 195-mph sustained winds when it made landfall, while Typhoon Tip was at 190 mph (and had a slightly lower pressure reading of 870 millibars) in 1979.
Whether or not Patricia
measures up to those Asian typhoons when it slams Mexico, CNN
meteorologist Chad Myers said, "This is the only hurricane that's ever
been this powerful."
Mexico's Pacific coast on high alert
Late
Friday morning, the storm was centered 125 miles (75 kilometers)
southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, and 195 miles south of Cabo Corrientes.
Moving
at a 10-mph clip, it's forecast to pivot north-northeast later Friday
and pick up speed -- especially after it makes landfall, when Patricia
should both accelerate and "rapidly weaken over the mountains of
Mexico."
A satellite image shows Hurricane Patricia in the Pacific at 5:30 a.m. ET Friday.
A
hurricane warning, which means hurricane conditions were expected
within 24 hours, extends from San Blas to Punta San Telmo. A larger
area, from east of Punta San Telmo to Lazaro Cardenas, is under a
hurricane watch.
This means that millions of people, some of them tourists who'd gone to the coast to get away, are under threat.
Mexican
authorities worked overtime to prepare for it. In a meeting that
started Thursday night and extended into Friday morning, President
Enrique Pena Nieto directed members of his cabinet to take immediate
action in the face of what was then predicted to be the strongest
hurricane in the eastern Pacific in the past 50 years, according to the
official Notimex news agency.
Officials
tried to alert those on the coast, especially in the states of Jalisco,
Colima, Nayarit, Michoacan and Guerrero, to get ready by heading to
shelters, staying home from school or doing what they could to be safe
wherever they are. The Mexican presidency warned, via Twitter, that
waterspouts and tornadoes could pop up as Patricia rampages through.
Mexico's
civil protection agency tweeted that over 1,780 shelters had been set
up and that a 50,000-strong force has been mobilized in Jalisco, Colima
and Nayarit alone. In addition, about 4,000 Mexican navy officers have
been dispatched to areas expected to bear the brunt of Patricia's wrath.
All flights to and from the airports in Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo were suspended.
As
authorities converged, residents did what they could by boarding up
windows and piling up sand bags along beaches in places such as
Manzanillo in hopes of blunting what's expected to be a colossal storm
surge.
Some hotels in Puerto
Vallarta were evacuated, though others -- like Comfort Inn, where
manager Samuel Ruic said windows were being boarded up with tape -- were
not.
In addition to powerful winds,
concerns are high about dangerous storm surges like those that overran
the Filipino city of Tacloban during Haiyan. The National Hurricane
Center warned about those as well as swells that "are likely to cause
life-threatening surf and rip-current conditions."
Rainfall
of 8 to 12 inches -- and possibly 20 inches in some spots -- "could
produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," according to the
U.S. weather agency.
El Nino contributes to storm's strength
One
other thing alarming about Patricia is its rapid rise in intensity. It
rated as a tropical storm early Thursday, but 24 hours later it had
become a Category 5 hurricane.
The
storm is expected to roll over Mexico's Sierra Madre, likely
significantly dulling its intense winds in the process. But much of the
system's precipitation should roll on -- potentially up to Arkansas,
Louisiana and Texas, a state that's now facing 3 to 6 inches in many
areas from another system.
Still, while
the Patricia-related rainfall could be significant in the United
States, it pales to what people in Mexico will experience.
Those
on that Latin American country's west coast are no stranger to tropical
storms, of course. But Patricia is special, in part because of the
global, regular weather phenomenon known as El Niño.
Among other effects, El Niño has contributed to ocean waters off Mexico being 2 to 3 degrees warmer than usual.
"That
warm water from El Niño probably just pushed this slightly over the
edge to be the strongest storm on record," CNN's Myers said.
About
the only good news about Patricia, as of Friday morning, was that its
center was fairly compact, with hurricane-force winds only extending 30
miles out from its eye.
That's
a plus for anyone who gets brushed by the hurricane, but no consolation
for those -- perhaps in Manzanillo, about 170 miles south of Puerto
Vallarta -- who get hit directly.
"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. "... Can you
imagine being the center of this eye, ... and then get hit by the eye
wall doing 200 mph?
"It will be a devastating blow."
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