300MPH Hurricane - Science Fiction Theater - 1950's.

[TheMastersNemesis]

In the 1950's Science Fiction Theater did an episode featuring a hurricane with 300MPH winds. Of course at the end of the episode the hurricane missed landfall in the US. It was very dramatic and was treated as "science fiction". However in the face of the newest hurricane in the Pacific hitting Mexico with 200mph winds you wonder if a storm with 300mph winds could one day form with global warming.

At 300 MPH very few buildings except the most robust would remain standing. And probably most homes would be completely gone were such a monster happen. Then what about tornadoes with 350mph plus winds miles wide. If you look at the planet Neptune I believe it has 500 mph winds.

Seems like we ar playing with fire at a gasoline refinery.

[Rex]

1. Is there any science that says it would be impossible?

I guess with the right weather conditions, 300 mph is a possibility. What do the DU climatologists say?

[phantom power]

3. What of it I've read seems to suggest weather science considers it impossible...

Even the theoretical "hypercane" storms don't achieve that kind of velocity, and those assume sea surface temperatures like 120F.

There was a fun book called Mother of Storms, by John Barnes, that hypothesized un-known nonlinear effects that allowed a hurricane to achieve super-sonic velocity, but that's just creative speculation.

Although on an interesting note: A naive weather model would predict that a tropical storm would never have winds exceeding 50 mph or so: it turns out that ocean churn and spray "lubricates" the interface between land and water, and allows the stronger storms we know actually happen.

So, I guess you never know.

[Rex]

5. Food for thought. Thanks for the reply.

I figured the overall force needed to push winds toward 300 would only be found on planets like Jupiter. I guess nothing is out of bounds.

[KamaAina]

8. "it turns out that ocean churn and spray "lubricates" the interface between land and water"

Might there be a way to, as we say in $iliValley, disrupt that effect, perhaps by spraying some sort of anti-"lubricant" on the surface?

[malaise]

2. The really good news - Patricia is weakening

should make landfall at around 190mph (like there's a big difference from 200mph).
Bottom line - we've fugged up this planet. One of these will hit somewhere else in our hemisphere sooner rather than later.

[phantom power]

4. A 190mph landfall is stupendously intense.

The idea that landfall "weakened" this thing to 190mph, which by itself would be a record-book storm, makes my head spin.

[malaise]

6. Did you miss this part?

(like there's a big difference from 200mph).

[phantom power]

7. no, I just can hardly believe it's happening

[KamaAina]

10. Landfall made at 165mph

http://www.weather.com/news/news/hurricane-patricia-landfall-mexico-latest-updates

6:31 p.m. CDT: The National Hurricane Center confirms that Hurricane Patricia made landfall at about 6:15 p.m. CDT along the coast of Mexico near Cuixmala, Jalisco, as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph, making it the strongest hurricane to make landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast in recorded history.

And right in between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. Let's hope for the best.

[countryjake]

9. Earlier today, the National Hurricane Center reported gusts at 250 mph...

while Hurricane Patricia's sustained winds were still at 200 mph. Those stats have been lessening as the storm gets closer to landfall, but such wind speeds are unprecedented.


As a person who tends to imagine the worst, whilst hoping for the best, Mother Nature no longer surprises me. I know our climate is changing and all that I can wonder is how living creatures may survive the consequences.