The day after the Western Hemisphere's strongest hurricane on record plowed into the coast of western Mexico, the extent of the damage and the storm's wrath was still unclear. Social media and news reports showed that Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, two major resort destinations, were relatively unscathed by the storm, with minor to moderate damage in Manzanillo.
The compact core of the storm hit about 55 miles north of Manzanillo, and whatever was in its path likely experienced the equivalent of an EF-4 tornado and a 16-foot tsunami at the same time. Needless to say, little information was filtering out from this area on Saturday.
However, data from one weather station in Cuixmala, where the storm made landfall on Friday at 7:15 p.m. ET, suggests that the full fury of the storm was indeed horrific. And emerging social media posts show this was likely the case as well.
Más imágenes de la comunidad de Emiliano Zapata, cerca de Cuixmala, Jalisco. pic.twitter.com/66HT0jxp6y— Enrique Acevedo (@Enrique_Acevedo) October 24, 2015
The weather station, operated by the Mexican Weather Service, known as the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, shows that Cuixmala experienced Category 5 hurricane conditions for an entire hour, with a peak sustained wind of 185 miles per hour. The highest gust at that location was 211 miles per hour.
Chamela Cuixmala Jal Rachas 180.1 km/h Presion 937 mb pic.twitter.com/5JgaCn4yjs— CONAGUA Clima (@conagua_clima) October 24, 2015
For this data to be certified as accurate, the instruments have to be checked by meteorologists to make sure they were working properly. Oftentimes anemometers, which measure wind speed, can become unreliable in extreme events such as this as they near their design limits.
Nevertheless, this information suggests that any of the small towns and resorts in the landfall area may have sustained extreme damage.
En la zona d #Cuixmala,Jalisco(Zapata y LaHuerta):describen casas q salieron volando,caminos anegados y daños graves pic.twitter.com/5fEE7ZGHMn— Jaye Galicot (@JGalicot) October 24, 2015
The information from the weather station does not suggest what the storm surge flooding was like, although it was predicted to be among the largest ever recorded along the western Mexico coast.
Via Steve Zubrick, amazingly weather station at Chamela-Cuixmala Mexico recored Cat 5 winds for hour or so #Patricia pic.twitter.com/OE8uIMoTqD— Marshall Shepherd (@DrShepherd2013) October 24, 2015
Meanwhile, NASA released a video showing a satellite loop of the storm's record rate of intensification, its weakening just before landfall, and then its disintegration over the mountains of inland Mexico.