Hurricane Patricia

Record-breaking Hurricane Patricia had stronger maximum sustained winds at its peak intensity than previously thought, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Thursday.
The NHC report says that maximum sustained winds topped out at 215 mph (185 knots) on the morning of Oct. 23, 2015, when Patricia was spinning off the coast of Mexico in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This is 15 mph higher than the 200-mph winds stated in advisories issued by the NHC when the hurricane was ongoing, which already made it the strongest hurricane on record in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic Ocean basins.


In addition, the NHC says that the official estimated lowest atmospheric pressure on the morning of Oct. 23 for Patricia has been adjusted to a lower value of 872 millibars (previously estimated to be 879 millibars). This pressure is the lowest on record in the Western Hemisphere, and the second lowest on record for the world just behind the 870 millibars observed in Supertyphoon Tip in 1979.  In general, a lower pressure means a more intense hurricane in terms of its winds and overall destructive potential. Conversely, a higher pressure indicates a weaker system.
(MORE: Stunning Meteorological Images of Patricia)
Another change in the NHC report is that Patricia made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with top winds of 150 mph. Patricia was originally estimated to be a Category 5 with 165-mph winds at landfall. The point of landfall was near Playa Cuixmala in Jalisco state of southwest Mexico on Oct. 23 at 6:15 p.m. CDT.
Although the core of Patricia's strongest winds impacted a sparsely populated area north of Manzanillo, it still caused severe damage in a small area. More than 10,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and about 100,000 acres of farmland suffered significant damage. Strong winds stripped the vegetation off of most of the trees in the area and concrete power poles were knocked down. The report says that two small villages, Emiliano Zapata and Chamela, suffered the most extreme damage.