Massive Cat5 Hurricane headed for PV
 

This weekend. Possibly the strongest Pacific hurricane ever.

Be sure to check your accomodations, assuming you will be able to fly in.

Manzanillo is also in the path. Cat 5 winds plus storm surge, not good at all. :(

We're supposed to get some really bad weather this weekend with tons of rain. Hope all in Mexico will be okay.

It's going to be a bad one. My thoughts are with everybody down there.

It exploded late yesterday, by midnight it was Cat 5.

They were reporting tourists checking out and heading overland to Guadalajara.

Very serious for small villages and farmers that will likely lose their crops.

Also looking ahead more flooding in Texas.

This is unbelievably scary. We often rent beach homes in the PV area -- much of the housing for both locals and tourists seems far from stormproof. Concerned about emergency services as well.

There are many live reports on tripadvisor. Hotel guests have been evacuated to inland shelters. The PV airport is closed and passengers are being bused to Guadalajara. All airlines have canceled flights bound for the west coast of Mexico and waived change fees.

For those interested, you can follow this storm chaser working for the Weather Channel. Crazy job:

https://twitter.com/iCyclone

https://www.facebook.com/iCyclone

Stay safe, everyone.

The hurricane, now downgraded to a tropical storm, hit land in the southern part of the state of Jalisco, south of Puerto Vallarta and north of Manzanillo.

Zero effect here, no wind, some rain, but less than the usual rainy season storms. No power cuts, stayed online all day. :)

Six inches of rain so far for us, and it's still coming down. Is it still true that there are no deaths from the storm? If so, that's amazing considering it was a Cat. 5.

volcanogirl, I'm not sure when this happened in the timeline but it was downgraded from "hurricane" to "tropical storm".

Thank goodness. I have a plumeria in a huge pot that just blew over, so the winds are coming in. Rain seems to be lightening up a little bit.

Patricia was still Cat 5 when it made landfall near Cuixmala on the Costa Careyes. The fact that it struck a sparsely populated area helped. So did the mountainous terrain, which absorbed the winds and weakened the impact.

The fact that the authorities ordered evacuations probably helped also. At least they think it did.

Hurricanes weaken rapidly when the eye crosses land.

They think that the sharp northern turn that it took just before landfall also helped with lowering the maximum force, and the storm surge was less because it was a hurricane for barely a day or two before landfall.

Very lucky (and smart). Lessons learned by many people, although there are always a few morons.