eastern pacific Major Hurricane Patricia

[Nick F]

BTW, why was the storm travelling in the direction it was? Doesn't they usually come in east to west at that latitude?

 

Often they continue westwards towards Hawaii rather than moving north, but not always, Patricia was caught between a mid-level high over the Gulf of Mexico and an amplifying trough over northwestern Mexico. Hurricanes tend to follow the path of least resistance, so it ending up going around he periphery of the GoM high and N then NE ahead of the trough to the NW.

[Nouska]

Patricia was every bit as intense as Haiyan but the size made a big difference in terms of extent of wind damage.

 

Dvorak imaging below - she was an 8 on the scale at peak intensity - very few hurricanes reach that!

 

[knocker]

Now just a remnant low in the western Gulf moving NNE

 

[bobbydog]

well, patricia did much less damage than feared and as yet, NO casualties have been reported!

now THAT deserves a mexican wave!🌵🌴

[Midlands Ice Age]

well, patricia did much less damage than feared and as yet, NO casualties have been reported!

now THAT deserves a mexican wave.

I agree..

 

but what is going on?

 

Have we ever seen a hurricane go from Tropical Storm  status to Cat 6-7 in 30 hours and then smash into land with the power of a cat1 hurricane within the next 18 hours!..

 

I use my personal judgement here as in the 97-98 El Nino period (much stronger, but not sure which year) I was caught in a ship going down into Acapulco towards the Baja.

.

It rapidly developed from a TStorm into a cat  1-2 hurricane, in a few hours (6-10?) about 100 miles into the Pacific as it was travelling north parallel to the coast.

 

It moved into the land behind us and we were trapped. Vey frightening - and I saw the most amazing sight  that night of a tornado in the dark wrapped by lightening (and nearly got swept overboard!!). 

 

The point is the next day we were still allowed to dock in Acapulco and we were treated to scenes of flooding and the news that  7 people had lost their lives overnight in the storm. I cannot believe a cat5 would do little damage and cause no casualties, when the people were not prepared for it.!

 

Something is not quite adding up!

 

MIA

Edited October 24, 2015 by Midlands Ice Age

[bobbydog]

I agree..

 

but what is going on?

 

Have we ever seen a hurricane go from Tropical Storm  status to Cat 6-7 in 30 hours and then smash into land with the power of a cat1 hurricane within the next 18 hours!..

 

I use my personal judgement here as in the 97-98 El Nino period (much stronger, but not sure which year) I was caught in a ship going down into Acapulco towards the Baja.

.

It rapidly developed from a TStorm into a cat  1-2 hurricane, in a few hours (6-10?) about 100 miles into the Pacific as it was travelling north parallel to the coast.

 

It moved into the land behind us and we were trapped. Vey frightening - and I saw the most amazing sight  that night of a tornado in the dark wrapped by lightening (and nearly got swept overboard!!). 

 

The point is the next day we were still allowed to dock in Acapulco and we were treated to scenes of flooding and the news that  7 people had lost their lives overnight in the storm. I cannot believe a cat5 would do little damage and cause no casualties, when the people were not prepared for it.!

 

Something is not quite adding up!

 

MIA

i suppose in your case, it happened even quicker. at least they had a day or so warning here and maybe they are more prepared than we give them credit for. many of the places in the warning area were fishing villages etc, been there hundreds of years and seen it all before. plus, i think luck had a big part in it. it did make landfall as a cat 5 but very quickly dissipated due to the mountains. as others have said, it was very powerful but quite small in comparison to previous hurricanes. think of it this way- fire a 1000mph rifle bullet at a brick wall you will take a chunk out of it. drive a tipper truck at it at 50mph- wall gone...

[Midlands Ice Age]

i suppose in your case, it happened even quicker. at least they had a day or so warning here and maybe they are more prepared than we give them credit for. many of the places in the warning area were fishing villages etc, been there hundreds of years and seen it all before. plus, i think luck had a big part in it. it did make landfall as a cat 5 but very quickly dissipated due to the mountains. as others have said, it was very powerful but quite small in comparison to previous hurricanes. think of it this way- fire a 1000mph rifle bullet at a brick wall you will take a chunk out of it. drive a tipper truck at it at 50mph- wall gone...

 

PS I've looked back and it was Hurricane Pauline in 1997.

 

Apparently 500 people were killed by it in total - most  caused by the flooding afterwards. The name has now been removed  from the lists.

 

Gosh - I didn't realise how lucky we were!

 

I was on a cruise ship at the time and the captain told me that day what had happened (as above), but I wasn't into it then as I am now. I seem to remember that the captain got special permission to dock in Acapulco!!

 

He did say it caught them (and the forecasters) totally unaware,  as they expected it to continue moving up the coastline before moving out into the pacific. We had sailed down from Los  Angelis that day in beautiful hot sunbathing weather and I well remember that we stopped for about an hour that lunchtime to watch a school of about 1500 dolphins dancing all round the ship in a huge circle!      A fantastic sight - perhaps they were trying to tell us something!

 

I also remember watching a massive thunderstorm developing over the mountains on our port side (Mexico) during the aftenoon. It went dark and we went down for our evening meal as usual, and it wan't until fantastic lightening suddenly lit the ship and the ship suddenly started rolling that the passengers knew anything amiss. The rest of the meal was accompanied by a lot of screams from the ladies!.

 

I also remember opening a sea door after the meal and also nearly getting swept away by a wave!!! On managing to hang on to the door I still remember the laughter of my friends as I appeared absolutely drenched!

 

It was a very interesting day looking back on it and it was about 1:00 am I looked out and saw the Tornado going past!!

 

Probably as well I didn't know much about weather in those days!!!

 

MIA

Edited October 24, 2015 by Midlands Ice Age

[Nouska]

You need to bear in mind the differences in track between the two hurricanes. Pauline was weaker but hugged the coastline, causing massive flooding with the moist tropical airmass colliding with high mountain terrain. The majority of the deaths were caused by flash flooding and people being swept away.

 

Patricia was well off shore, came in quickly and passed through quickly. There will be major flooding from this too but the time differential will be a blessing in lives saved.

 

Pauline    Patricia 

[Midlands Ice Age]

You need to bear in mind the differences in track between the two hurricanes. Pauline was weaker but hugged the coastline, causing massive flooding with the moist tropical airmass colliding with high mountain terrain. The majority of the deaths were caused by flash flooding and people being swept away.

 

Patricia was well off shore, came in quickly and passed through quickly. There will be major flooding from this too but the time differential will be a blessing in lives saved.

 

Pauline    Patricia 

 

Thanks Nouska.

 

I am sorry if I took the subject of thread heading of subject for a wee-while!

 

It was the first time I had looked back and the memories came flooding back!

 

I only thought I had been through a fairly minor tropical storm, not realising until I looked on WIKI a couple of hours ago what a bad hurricane/storm it was.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Midlands Ice Age

[bobbydog]

cool story though MIA!

[tinybill]

just  been looking  at the radar  for texes  i cant see the f1  happening its still pouring down there  and looking at the rain cloud it could do for hours of very heavy rain

Edited October 25, 2015 by tinybill

[Hurricane Debby]

just  been looking  at the radar  for texes  i cant see the f1  happening its still pouring down there  and looking at the rain cloud it could do for hours of very heavy rain

 

Thanks Tiny Bill, I just watched the BBC update on it and they were saying they were hoping to run the qualies in the morning, maybe not though ! What would happen then I wonder ?

[Summer Sun]

Thanks Tiny Bill, I just watched the BBC update on it and they were saying they were hoping to run the qualies in the morning, maybe not though ! What would happen then I wonder ?

 

They'll use the order from the final practice session which they somehow managed to get completed yesterday

 

I don't know if your aware but we do have an F1 thread here - https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/82167-2015-formula-one-season/page-7#entry3274262

Edited October 25, 2015 by Summer Sun

[Hurricane Debby]

They'll use the order from the final practice session which they somehow managed to get completed yesterday

 

I don't know if your aware but we do have an F1 thread here - https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/82167-2015-formula-one-season/page-7#entry3274262

 

I didn't but I do now ! Thank you

[Su Campu]

I wrote this analysis of Patty. Warm seas, no shear and vorticity from a northerly outbreak over Mexico a few days previous all made her quite a foxy little vixen.

https://irishweatheronline.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/an-analysis-of-record-hurricane-patricia/

[Summer Sun]

Patricia brought some torrential rain to southern states as the graph below shows

 

[Nick L]

Patricia brought some torrential rain to southern states as the graph below shows

 

 

Best part of half a metre in a day, madness.

[Nick F]

An aerial image of destruction of Chamela Community in Jalisco State, Mexico - probably saw the narrow corridor of strongest winds:

 

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-the-chamela-community-jalisco-state-mexico-news-photo/494112210?share=site_twitter&suri=1

 

More images from Getty of damage from Patricia here:

 

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/galleries/photographers/hector_guerrero

[NUT]

Patricia brought some torrential rain to southern states as the graph below shows

 

 

Honestly surprised the grand prix over the weekend didn't get cancelled with the rain that fell at times. Quite astonishing

[Lauren]

Can you imagine the injury and death toll had this hit a highly populated area? Just goes to show how much luck plays a role in the precarious game that is life.