Rick Now 'Extremely Dangerous' Category 4 Hurricane

Source: news.com.au

HURRICANE Rick has strengthened to an "extremely dangerous" Category Four storm in the Pacific Ocean, the US National Hurricane Centre says.
Rick was gathering strength off Mexico's Pacific coast, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 215km/h.

At 10.15am GMT (9.15pm AEDT), Rick's centre was 410km southwest of the resort town of Acapulco in southern Mexico. The hurricane was moving west-northwest at 19km/h, according to the Miami-based centre.

It's expected to begin to make a sharp turn north by Tuesday, cutting toward Mexico's Baja Peninsula.

US forecasters say residents should monitor the hurricane's progress.

The centre said outer rainbands associated with the storm are already approaching Mexico's southern coast and will likely continue to affect the area today.

The seventh hurricane of the eastern north Pacific 2009 season, Rick comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Patricia, which last week placed Los Cabos on Baja's southern tip under a state of emergency, before petering out.

The peninsula was battered in early September by Hurricane Jimena, which ripped the roofs off houses and caused floods that killed one person......

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26225584-23109,00.html

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All in all, this has been a very mild hurricane season so far.

if it's on the Pacific?

which is much more important than the destructive capabilities of the storm:

"hurricane" (the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E)
"typhoon" (the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline)
"severe tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E)
"severe cyclonic storm" (the North Indian Ocean)
"tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Indian Ocean)
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A1.html

So, no, it still looks like a hurricane.

And it seems impossible to ask one here without teh snotty.

I apologize for my snotty reply, for which I have no excuse. I admit freely that I'm an asshole, and I'm capable of suppressing my assholery when the situation demands it, but I let my 'nice guy' façade slip sometimes.

You're correct about the level of discourse lately, however. Once again, I have no excuse, but some of the things that are said - and allowed to pass - boggle the mind. It makes me want to get in touch with my inner rude pundit and cut loose! Mind you, my bites can be pretti nastii. This sort of thing - when allowed to flourish - spreads like a cancer.

:hi:

It carries the proper connotation for people in this
country.

Other words might not carry the same impact.

Or is that only in a 6th-grade joke? "What's worse than a hurricane?...."

I had no idea (a gap in my education, apparently) there were these distinctions, so I thank you and Rucky for these details. ;)

I remember reading of a Caribbean hurricane that survived it's crossing of central America as a tropical storm and had it's name changed to appropriate western Pacific name.

The origin of the word is most likely from an Asian language.

They call 'em hurricanes on this side.

with few named storms and most of them getting their tops ripped off long before they're a threat to any land.

The eastern Pacific season has been a stinker with plenty of named storms with a kink in their track that pushes them across land, mostly after they've gone over colder water and lost strength.

Unfortunately for my part of the country, the moisture from the hurricanes that have traveled north has gone far to the south of us, through northern Mexico before it heads into parts of Texas.

More so that I can ever remember. That explains a lot.

Looks like the storm of the season.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDEP5+shtml/171500.shtml?

This is an El Nino year, already wetter on the west coast and more to come...

wow, and earthquake activity probablitiy up with the plates shifting in indonesia and the SP...

yikes, AND the mudslide factor from all the fires in So. Cal

This may not be a fun yar to be a Califonian :scared:

Not so much the blistering near-100F heat since, lol.

we desperately need the water, and to get it we have to have rain, storms, and snow..or we'll have to "borrow" it from others :evilgrin:

He's kept us safe!

:rofl:

RICK SHOULD REMAIN IN A NEARLY-IDEAL ENVIRONMENT OF LIGHT
VERTICAL WIND SHEAR AND WARM SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES FOR THE
NEXT 18-24 HRS. THUS...IT SHOULD CONTINUE TO INTENSIFY UNTIL AN
EYEWALL REPLACEMENT CYCLE OCCURS OR IT REACHES THE MAXIMUM
POTENTIAL INTENSITY FOR THAT AREA. BASED ON THIS...THE INTENSITY
FORECAST CALLS FOR THE HURRICANE TO REACH CATEGORY FIVE STATUS IN
12-24 HRS. AFTER THAT...GRADUALLY COOLING SSTS AND GRADUALLY
INCREASING SHEAR SHOULD START A STEADY WEAKENING TREND FOR
REMAINDER OF THE FORECAST PERIOD. EYEWALL REPLACEMENT CYCLES COULD
CAUSE FLUCTUATIONS IN INTENSITY SUPERIMPOSED ON THE GENERAL TREND
INDICATED IN THE FORECAST.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDEP5+shtml/171500.shtml?

=======
310 PM PDT SAT OCT 17 2009


...RICK BECOMES A CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE...

SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATES THAT RICK HAS BECOME A CATEGORY FIVE
HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE WITH MAXIMUM
SUSTAINED WINDS OF 160 MPH...260 KM/HR.

========

(See 'update statement' at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/nhc_storms.shtml)

he's gonna grind his feet into lots of people's couches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HrSN7176XI

:P