Hurricane Patricia “Strongest in History”

Hurricane Patricia is being called the strongest hurricane ever recorded. 

The hurricane is expected to make landfall in southwestern Mexico late Friday afternoon or early Friday evening.   The National Hurricane Center says it could be a catastrophic landfall. 

Residents have been told to brace for 200 mile per hour winds and torrential rains. 

Patricia’s center is about 85 miles southwest of Manzanilla, Mexico and 155 miles south of Cabo Corrientes. 

The intensity of the storm is comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Phillipines in 2013, killing 6,000 people.

The country is bracing for floods and landslides. The hurricane could dump anywhere from eight to twelve inches of rain on some parts of Mexico, with other areas getting as much as 20 inches.

Hurricane Patricia started out as a tropical storm on Thursday but quickly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane. 

Experts say that this year’s El Nino has made ocean water off Mexico warmer than usual, which in turn made the storm stronger. 

Heavy rainfall could be seen in the United States in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas as a result of the hurricane.