Earlier today, I heard that Hurricane Patricia, a 200 mph hurricane was barreling towards Mexico’s west coast. To put that into perspective. Even a hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph is rare and very extreme. Imagine an EF5 tornado with 200 mph winds extending 35 miles out from the center, except it would last hours. That’s how bad it is.
To clarify, Hurricane Patricia is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere, and it entered Mexico with sustained winds of 165 mph, which are still very dangerous. Hurricane Patricia also broke the record for the lowest pressure at 880 millibars. The previous record was held by Hurricane Wilma of 2005.
Hurricane Patricia just started making landfall this evening at 7:15 PM ET. Hurricanes have become stronger and more plentiful over the past century, however, Patricia is leaps and bounds more powerful that most of them. It’s unclear whether or not this hurricane was the result of climate change, but it could provide a sneak peek of what is to come if climate change isn’t mitigated soon enough.
