Please stay tuned to our official news story for breaking and updated info. Also watch Hurricane.AccuWeather.com, AccuWeather on Facebook and AccuWeather en Espanol for critical updates on this storm! I will be adding updates throughout the day but you'll get them quicker by following me on Twitter or Facebook.

STRONGEST STORM?Patricia has dropped the mic.

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EARLIER UPDATE: If you look at the top storms worldwide (via WikiPedia, based mostly on HurTrak data), Patricia has the HIGHEST WINDS and ties for #4 LOWEST PRESSURE (it was lowered to 879 mb at 2 pm). Recon radar now available here.

However... three of the lower pressure storms were estimated, and have no wind data. NOTE: One of our forecasters here says that Typhoon Tip should have had 190 mph 1-min. winds, not 160 as specified here, but Patricia still beats that.

RADAR LOVE: There are no Mexico radars that can see the area of landfall -- but welcome to the future, here's a hurricane loop from the Hurricane Hunters:

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Video: Lower Fuselage Radar loop of #Patricia on 10/22/2015 from #NOAA43 (NOAA P3).Posted by The NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Friday, October 23, 2015

POPULATION: This is a sparsely populated area of Mexico, and I don't know how accurate this website is, but Population Explorer says there are about 387,000 people in the triangle drawn below, which includes Manzanillo and Cihuatlan. Since Manzanillo is pegged at just over 100,000, that sounds reasonable. If you open that up to a wider area to include Colima and Tecoman, that more than doubles. Wikipedia says"Manzanillo is the busiest port in Mexico. Manzanillo is also home to the Navy's Pacific Naval Force."

ORIGINAL BLOG: On Sept. 12, 1997, (my first month working at AccuWeather), I blogged that the strongest hurricane in history had formed. Hurricane Linda rapidly intensified off the coast of Mexico to a strong Category 5 storm with a pressure of 902mb. Last night, that record was shattered by Hurricane Patricia, which this morning has a pressure of 880 mb and incredible sustained winds measured at 200 mph!

Hurricane Linda was estimated to have "only" 185-mph sustained winds. Linda is estimated to be gusting to 245 mph! And the worst part: Linda never threatened land. Please stay tuned to our news story and AccuWeather en Espanol Facebook page for critical updates on this storm!

In 1997, I said that Hurricane Linda could be blamed on El Nino. Guess what's happening again in 2015?

I was worried yesterday when I saw how small Patricia's eye was (some of the strongest storms on earth have small eyes). By sunset last night, it was becoming obvious we'd have a monster on our hands:

*These pressure records do not include Typhoons. Patricia would be tied for #6 worldwide for pressure. Technically however, these are the strongest winds ever measured in a hurricane (recon flights rarely take place in Western Pacific storms).

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