A Look Back on the Impacts Of Hurricane Patricia! (credit: iCyclone)

DISCUSSION: In looking back on the days leading up to the formation and eventual landfall on Hurricane Patricia back on 23 October 2015, there was true meteorological history in the making which quickly got underway.  For starters, it was the fastest major hurricane on-record anywhere in the world to go from a meager tropical depression and/or tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane and then back to the point of official storm dissipation.  Starting on 17 October 2015, a disorganized cluster of thunderstorms began to organize across parts of Central America and by 20 October a blossoming tropical depression reached the status of Tropical Storm Patricia.  From there, things evolved fairly rapidly with the transition from Tropical Storm to Major Hurricane status occurring within just 42 hours.  Thus, it was quite an intense but short-lived tropical cyclone since it went from birth to dissipation in approximately 96 hour or so which is an incredibly fast evolution for a tropical cyclone which at peak intensity had confirmed maximum sustained wind speeds of 215 mph with higher gusts coupled with a lowest minimum central pressure of 872 mb.  This lowest minimum central pressure of 872 mb made it the most intense storm anywhere in the world on-record!

To learn more about other historical weather events from around the world, be sure to click here!

~Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz