Hurricane Otis Preliminarily Produced A 200+ MPH Wind Gust, Ranking Among Some Of Earth's Strongest

H​urricane Otis produced a preliminary wind gust of more than 200 mph when it roared ashore near Acapulco, Mexico, which would rank among some of the strongest winds ever recorded on Earth, according to new information.

A 205-mph (329.76 km/h) wind gust was preliminarily measured: Meteorological instrumentation located along the western coast of Acapulco Bay clocked the incredible winds just after midnight on Oct. 25, according to a post on X from Mexico's National Tidal Service of the Institute of Geophysics. Sustained winds reached a maximum of 114 mph (182.88 km/h).

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Wind gusts of this magnitude, official or unofficial, are few: That's because intense winds and/or power outages in extreme weather events often lead to a failure of instrumentation.

However, the agency provided before-and-after photos below showing the instrumentation was still intact after Otis had passed, while a nearby fence succumbed to hurricane's powerful winds.

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Otis' 205-mph gust is considered preliminary and will likely be reviewed in a post-storm analysis by the National Hurricane Center at a later time. If accepted, it would rank among some of Earth's strongest measured surface winds, not including tornadoes.

Here's a look at how it stacks up against some other past extreme wind events.

An individual mesovortex, a smaller-scale circulation embedded within Olivia's eyewall, produced five extreme 3-second wind gusts, the peak of which was a 253 mph gust on April 10.

T​he U.S. previously held the world record prior to Olivia: Less than two years after its opening, the standard for surface winds was held atop the 6,288-foot summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.

Observer Sal Pagliuca measured a 231-mph wind gust on April 12, 1934.

Pagliuca measured several gusts of at least 220 mph that day, but was concerned about the believability of these phenomenal measurements – to say nothing of his personal safety. A sustained 188-mph wind over five minutes was also measured.

Cuba holds the record for the strongest wind gust from an Atlantic hurricane: Hurricane Gustav on Aug. 30, 2008, produced a peak wind gust of 211.7 mph in Paso Real de San Diego, Cuba. This followed a period of rapid intensification in which Gustav strengthened from a Category 2 to a Category 4 hurricane.

S​ome other more recent gusts from notable Atlantic hurricanes include a 199-mph unofficial gust from Hurricane Irma on the island of St. Barthélemy on Sept. 6, 2017, and a preliminary gust to 172 mph from Hurricane Ida in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Aug. 29, 2021.

The strongest measured wind gust from a hurricane on U.S. soil is from the September 1938 Long Island Express. A 186-mph gust was recorded at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts. The incredible forward speed of that New England hurricane (60 to 70 mph), in addition to the elevation of Blue Hill (635 feet above sea level), likely contributed to the extreme wind gust.

Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.

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