Hurricane Otis slammed into southern Mexico’s Pacific coast this Wednesday, making landfall as a dangerous Category 5 storm.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Otis struck land near Acapulco, in Guerrero state, and warned that the area around the beach resort town could see “catastrophic damage.” Videos posted online showed strong winds and rain lashing the popular beach resort city as the storm made landfall, and officials encouraged people in the path of the storm to shelter inside their homes if they could.Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at a news conference Wednesday morning that Guerrero was hit hard by the hurricane, which completely knocked out communications in the state. He said the government had not received any official reports of deaths linked to the hurricane. Otis damaged roads and caused landslides along a major highway leading into Acapulco, the president said, adding that crews were at work to fix the communications issue.Mexico’s federal electricity commission said Wednesday morning that Otis had cut power to 504,340 customers, although it was later restored to 202,932 of those customers. Crews would continue restoring electricity supplies on site as soon as conditions allowed, the commission said.
Climate crisis cultists have decided to glom onto the term “rapid intensification,” asserting the swift strengthening of the storm is due to…..”climate change.” This is from one of the most egregious climate pseudoscience propagandists, CNN.
The term rapid intensification refers to when a storm’s winds strengthen rapidly over a short amount of time. Scientists have defined it as a wind speed increase of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less, and it generally requires significant ocean heat. The National Hurricane Center said Otis strengthened so fast on Tuesday that it had “explosively intensified.”Otis “took full advantage of a warm patch of ocean” that was roughly 88 degrees Fahrenheit, said Brian McNoldy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami – more than enough ocean heat to fuel a monster storm.
Geologist and climate science expert Dr. Matthew Wielicki provides a more lucid background and a more rational perspective.
In his recent substack post, Wielicki points out that we have only really appreciated the full scope of hurricane development with the advent of satellites. He points out that previous to the use of space technology, collecting data was done via ships and airplanes — offering a limited set of data that was clearly difficult to obtain.
Wielicki also notes that large hurricanes in this part of the world in October, particularly during the onset of an El Nino, are hardly a strange or unexpected event.
Hurricane Pauline was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that affected portions of Central America and Mexico in October 1997, during the 1997-98 El Nino event. It was one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the Pacific coast of Mexico in recent history.Pauline developed from a tropical wave into a tropical storm on October 5, 1997. It quickly strengthened into a hurricane the next day. The storm primarily moved northwestward, paralleling the southern coast of Mexico. Pauline reached its peak intensity on October 7, with sustained winds of about 135 mph (215 km/h), classifying it as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.The hurricane made landfall near Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, on October 8, with winds of about 115 mph (185 km/h). The system moved along the Mexican coast, bringing heavy rains, strong winds, and high surf. The cities of Acapulco and other areas in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero were hardest hit. Entire communities were swept away. The flooding destroyed homes, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure. Agriculture was heavily affected, with vast areas of crops being destroyed.
Hurricanes and typhoons have been dreaded weather events throughout human history, long before the invention of the internal combustion engine. There is no reasonable and rational case for linking their development to trace levels of the life-essential gas, carbon dioxide.
One last note about Otis: As the “experts” were shocked by the “rapid intensification,” why should we trust them to predict what the global weather will be like 70 years from now?
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