Yet Another Record Breaking Hurricane: Sandra

Sandra is a Category 4 hurricane in the Eastern Pacific. The storm will hit Mexico.

Sandra breaks several records. It is the first observed Category 4 hurricane on Thanksgiving Day. It is the latest major Western Hemisphere hurricane observed. It is the latest Category 4 storm in either the eastern Pacific of Atlantic basins. Most likely, Sandra will become the latest landfalling tropical cyclone on record for Mexico.

(Jeff Masters has details.)

Sandra will come near the southern time of the Baja late Friday, but will likely be a tropical storm at that point. The storm will come ashore overnight or Saturday morning as a tropical depression (or maybe a weak tropical storm) in Sinaloa. So, this may be a case of the rare Eastern Pacific hurricane reaching land, but as a rainstorm rather than a threatening tropical storm.

This year's record tropical storm activity is rather astonishing and is a result of a combination of continued global surface warming (which is thought to contribute to an overall increase in the frequency and severity of major storms) and this year's very strong El Niño.

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I hope they have a second list of names the first one is up to S already.

By Doug Alder (not verified) on 26 Nov 2015 #permalink

Slightly off topic and at a tangeant or three here but thinking of the rainstorms coming ashore and El Nino effects this article :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-18/el-nino-peru-prepares-for-devasta…

about its consequences on Peru may be worth a look.

This one here :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-23/global-el-nino/6954706

notes its effects on the Pacific and world more generally with a good graphic and news of the disaster in Papua New Guinea which has been going under the RADAR but causing a lot of human suffering.

Plus this :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/after-the-fire-pinery-residents-r…

is what people in my nearby vicinity, the outskirts of my home city are returning to after the Pinery bushfire a day or two ago. Our local Astronomical Observatory had a close call but survived. Two - maybe three - people died and many homes were destroyed with this bushfire still burning - and it'snot even summer here (Dec-Jan-Feb) yet.

One bushfire cannot be ascribed to Global Overheating and our nation has always had these bushfires - but the trend with many more and worse and earlier bushfires certainly can be and the implications here certainly has me scared. Can't wait till autumn and hope we reach it with no further such natural (and yet now also artificially enhanced) disasters claiming more lives and homes and so much more.

So... what happened to this "record breaking" hurricane, exactly? It hit land as a tropical depression... well, not really, more like a "rain event." You mentioned "on record," just how far do these records go? Im sure its a few hundred thousand years, hopefully a few million...?

By gino patrucci (not verified) on 30 Nov 2015 #permalink

Gino, it broke the record I said it broke, then it did what I said it was going to do.

Records go back to the mid 19th century, but good records start some time in the 20th century.