Good spot - looks like being right in the firing line. Could all change of course!

Sorry if I've missed it - but what is the central pressure of Hurricane Patricia at the moment.

Just seen it 880 mb.

The lowest recorded sea level pressure is apparently 868.

I don't mind if anyone corrects me on that one :-)

I thought it was Typhoon Tip at 870mb in 1979. As far as I know this is the strongest hurricane on record in terms of sustained wind speed and lowest SLP. I believe there have been a small number of typhoons with lower SLPs.

I recognise that name there Doc now you mention it. I think that's the one I was on about :-)

879 for Patricia on latest estimates, Tip was 870. In terms of wind speeds Patricia exceeds Tip, but it's a very localised wind field. Of course it's difficult to compare current data against historical data when we have far more accurate measurement cycles now.

I can't believe we are having to compare this thing with ridiculously strong typhoons! 

How did something like this happen in the wrong basin?

Yeh power scales quadratically to velocity. You double the wind-speed, you quadruple the power dissipated by it.

Starting to get breezy at La Manzanilla airport.

http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/MMZO.html

If only it was only squared, it's actually cubed, twice the speed = eight times the power

way i think of it is getting hit by a cube of air on a conveyor belt, at twice the speed that cube has v^2 the energy

but at twice the speed, more (two in this example) of those cubes of air can hit you in the same time (power is energy / time) as one did previously, so the power is cubed

http://www.iowaenergycenter.org/wind-energy-manual/wind-and-wind-power/wind-speed-and-power/

I'm gonna make a brave call.

This is literally the strongest tropical cyclone ever including all the most powerful typhoons.

Doh, thanks for correcting me.

That's an embarrassing mistake on my part.

Could well be. It is the strongest in this list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_intense_tropical_cyclones

Previous strongest were Tip (1979) in the Pacific with 190mph sustained winds and Allen (1980) in the Atlantic also at 190mph

I'ts gonna be a bad for those on the coast though.

Especially in rural or poorer areas.

Are there any reports on the Low's latest intensity?.

In fact there is an error in that article because some of the Pacific figures are quoted as 10 minute sustained winds and some at 1 minute sustained.

The previous strongest 1 minute sustained wind was recorded in Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 with a maximum 1 minute wind speed of 196mph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan

It's really a question of semantics with regard to "most powerful". In terms of sustained winds around a localised core, it's a record breaker. In terms of SLP in the core, probably not. In terms of storm surge, no. In terms of rainfall, no. In terms of impact it's unlikely to be a record breaker due to it's track. Thankfully we should not see a death toll with this storm into the thousands as per previous "biggies". And yes, it should break up pretty quickly due to topography inland and unfavourable sheer.

EDIT: Currently back up to 900mb, and down to 190mph sustained winds.

An impressive fall in central pressure of 110mb in just 30hours from 990mb to 880mb

Definitely looking rough in La Manzanila now, looking at the webcam.

Oooohhh and the camera has just been blown off its mounting!!

And some brave soul has just put it back and cleaned it down!

typhoon Nancy had 215mph sustained for 1 minute.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Nancy_(1961)

I've ordered and downloaded sat GOES data from NOAA from earlier.

And now I've managed to process it in GRads.

I'll try and post some more impressive graphics of Patricia!

I had a bit of Banter with Liam Dutton on twitter about this :P

I made the point that an 879mb centre in the E pacific probably corresponds to something closer to 850mb in the west which is a full 20mb lower than Tip. 

My reconinng is, its the most powerful storm of all time, and beats Tip by at least 10mph.

are there any cameras still working now?