Hurricane Patricia and the other strongest hurricanes in history
Hurricane Patricia made landfall Friday evening on Mexico's southwestern Pacific Coast as residents and tourists braced for what forecasters called "potentially catastrophic" damage.
The Category 5 storm is the strongest ever in the Western Hemisphere, with maximum sustained winds of 190 mph (305 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Here's a look at some of the other strongest hurricanes in history:
Linda
September 1997
- Linda was the strongest eastern northern Pacific hurricane on record before Patricia.
- Minimum pressure: 902 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 185 mph
- Did not directly affect land.
Wilma
October 2005
- Minimum pressure: 882 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 145 mph
- Wilma was directly responsible for 22 deaths across Haiti, Florida, Jamaica and Mexico and caused $16.8 billion damage in Florida alone.
Gilbert
September 1988
- Minimum pressure: 888 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 185 mph
- Gilbert made landfall in Cancun, Mexico, killing 318 people.
Labor Day
September 1935
- Minimum pressure: 26.35 inches
- Peak wind intensity: N/A
- Hurricane Labor Day, as it was known, tore through the Florida Keys and killed 408 people.
Rita
September 2005
- Minimum pressure: 895 millibars (approx.)
- Peak wind intensity: 180 mph
- Rita cut through the Florida Keys before making landfall in southeastern Texas. It killed seven people and caused $10 billion in damage.
Allen
August 1980
- Minimum pressure: 899 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 190 mph
- Allen made landfall as a Category 3 storm, but killed over 260 people in the U.S., Caribbean and Mexico.
Katrina
August 2005
- Minimum pressure: 902 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 175 mph
- Katrina killed approximately 1,200 people making it the deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. since the Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee hurricane of 1928. It is also the costliest U. S. hurricane on record.
Camille
August 1969
- Minimum pressure: 26.84 inches
- Peak wind intensity: 120 mph
- Camille hit near Biloxi, Mississippi, killing 256 people in the U.S. and causing $1.421 billion in damage.
Mitch
October 1998
- Minimum pressure: 905 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 178 mph
- Mitch caused an estimated 9,000 deaths in Central America and two in the United States.
Dean
August 2007
- Minimum pressure: 905 millibars
- Peak wind intensity: 155 mph
- Dean was the first hurricane in the Atlantic basin to make landfall as a Category 5 storm since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and was responsible for at least 45 deaths.
Learn more about historic hurricanes from the National Hurricane Center.
The Associated Press and the National Hurricane Center contributed to this report.
