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Hurricane Patricia

WMO sustained-wind extreme of 95 m/s (185 kt) at 1200 UTC on 23 October 2015. Tied with Typhoon Nancy. A 3-second gust is a different list.

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Wind speed

Published as 95 m/sPublished as 95 m/sPublished as 95 m/s

WMO maximum sustained surface wind, tied with Typhoon Nancy. 95 m/s (185 kt, 215 mph) at 1200 UTC on 23 October 2015. Not a 3-second gust.

OfficialWorld Meteorological Organization (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 3.3× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 1.0 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 16 h 17 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

Mechanism

Why it's so fast

Hurricane Patricia is ranked as a sustained wind, the speed held for the interval the record requires. A gust that spikes and vanishes is a different list.

  1. A pressure difference

    The tighter and deeper the low, the faster the air moves to fill it. Terrain and the storm's structure decide what an anemometer on the ground actually records.

  2. Held, not spiked

    Hurricane Patricia's figure had to keep going for the sustained-wind interval. That is usually lower than the peak gust in the same storm, and the two are not averaged.

Nearby on this list: Typhoon Nancy.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 342km/h213mph95m/s185knRanked figure

    WMO maximum sustained surface wind, tied with Typhoon Nancy. 95 m/s (185 kt, 215 mph) at 1200 UTC on 23 October 2015. Not a 3-second gust.

    Official
    World Meteorological Organization (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Quantity
Maximum sustained surface wind
Speed
95 m/s
Basin
Eastern Pacific
Date
23 October 2015

Context

Background

The WMO extremes table of 25 July 2025 lists Hurricane Patricia and Typhoon Nancy as a tie for the most intense tropical cyclone by maximum sustained surface wind, both at 95 m/s (185 knots, 215 mph). Patricia's time is 1200 UTC on 23 October 2015. The July 2024 edition of the same archive prints the same tie.

A 3-second gust is the other wind list. Patricia's gusts are not converted into this row, and this 95 m/s is not added to the gust ranking. The two storms share the rank because the archive prints one value.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.