A hurricane warning was in effect for the Mexican coast from Cabo Corrientes to Punta San Telmo, a stretch of coastline that includes Manzanillo.
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The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory Thursday evening as the Category 5 hurricane headed for the West Coast of Mexico, feeding off unusually warm ocean temperatures, and whipping winds of up to 185 miles per hour.
The storm is expected to make landfall on the coast ofMexico around 1 p.m. on Friday.
At 2100 GMT, Patricia was 400 kilometers south of Manzanillo, according to the US Hurricane Center.
The US National Hurricane Center said “preparations should be rushed to completion” as Patricia increased ominously from a category two to a category four storm in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale. The storm was located about 200 miles (320 kms) southwest of the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph).
“The hurricane could strengthen a little more before increasing southwesterly shear causes Patricia to weaken a few by Friday afternoon, although it should remain an extremely unsafe hurricane through landfall”, Blake said.
Officials in the states of Jalisco and Colima said they were canceling schoolas the storm neared.
While the resort area of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo may see heavy rainfall associated with Patricia, there are no watches or warnings for tropical storm or hurricane conditions there.
Approximately 50,000 people are expected to be evacuated by Friday afternoon, according to civil protections in the three states, about the time the storm is expected to hit.
Hard to overstate how horrific Hurricane Hurricane Patricia looks from satellite right now.
Patricia could also mean heavy rain for Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.
“This is an extremely unsafe, potentially catastrophic hurricane”, meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said.
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The Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to bring rainfall of 15 to 30 centimetres with isolated amounts of up to 50 centimetres in a few locations.
