(CNN)Patricia
--
the strongest hurricane ever recorded -- barreled closer and closer
Friday to Mexico's Pacific coast, where residents have been told to
brace for its 200-mph sustained winds and torrential rains.
The
excessive wind speeds, according to the head of the Mexican agency that
includes its national weather service, "makes Patricia the most
dangerous storm in history."
By
that, CONAGUA director Robert Ramirez de la Parra meant any cyclone
ever measured not just in and around Mexico, but anywhere in the world.
Ramirez
de la Parra predicted Hurricane Patricia will make landfall somewhere
on the coast of Jalisco state -- which includes the tourist hotspot of
Puerto Vallarta and is also close to Manzanillo and Colima -- between 5
and 6 p.m. CT (6 and 7 p.m. ET). But its impact should be felt much
sooner, with 100 kph (62 mph) winds lashing the region in the early
afternoon.
While its strength
could fluctuate, "Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous
Category 5 hurricane through landfall," the U.S. National Weather Center
said in its 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) advisory.
Already,
Patricia is "the strongest hurricane on record in the National
Hurricane Center's area of responsibility (AOR) which includes the
Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific basins," according to a Friday morning forecast discussion.
The
closest contender, at this point, might be Hurricane Camille, which
battered the U.S. Gulf Coast in 1969. Patricia looks to be more powerful
than that storm, as well as stronger than Hurricane Andrew in 1992,
Katrina in 2005 and many others.
It's
already surpassed them in one way: its central pressure reading -- the
weight of the air above a system -- which is a key measure of any
storm's strength.
The midday Friday central pressure recording of 879 millibars (the barometric pressure equivalent is 25.96 inches) "is the lowest for any tropical cyclone globally for over 30 years," according to the Met Office, Britain's weather service.
Patricia's
intensity is comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in
2013, the World Meteorological Organization tweeted. More than 6,000 people died in Haiyan, due largely to enormous storm surges that rushed through coastal areas. Haiyan had 195-mph sustained winds when it made landfall, while Typhoon Tip was at 190 mph (and had a slightly lower pressure reading of 870 millibars) in 1979. read more
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