Hurricane Patricia is now described as the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. Meteorologists are talking about its stunning “rapid intensification.” The rest of us can call it a hurricane explosion. 
 
 From Wednesday night through Friday, Tropical Storm Patricia blew up into a record-setting Category 5 hurricane that is headed toward Mexico’s west coast. In about 24 hours, the maximum sustained winds increased from 85 miles per hour Thursday morning to more than 200 miles per hour by early Friday, meteorologists say. 
 
 “It was a perfect environment for the rapid intensification,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. 
 
 That perfect environment includes warm ocean water, low wind shear or calm winds in the atmosphere and a relatively compact storm structure, according to meteorologists. Cooler waters, tossing upper winds and a broad storm footprint all serve as brakes to rapid growth. 
 
 Why Patricia turned into a monster is a bit of a mystery, said James Franklin, chief of forecast operations at the Hurricane Center. 
 
 “We have had situations with equally warm water and with low wind shear and we don’t get a record-breaking storm,” Franklin said. “What is the exact combination of factors to produce a storm? I don’t think anybody really knows.” 
 
 But the physics of growth is known, he explained. 
 
 The hurricane starts with warm waters off the Pacific. The water evaporates, forming thunderstorms, and the vapor turns to liquid, releasing more heat. This forms a cycle of heat that helps lower the air pressure, he said. 
 
 The probable path of Hurricane Patricia 
 
 The cycle of heat exchange, dropping pressure and growing winds is like the fuel pump driving the storm. Changes in air pressure excite the winds into blowing. As of 11 a.m. EDT, Patricia was carrying sustained winds of 200 miles an hour with gusts even higher. It was moving north at about 10 miles an hour and was 125 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. 
 
 Air is normally moving in the atmosphere as well. The phenomenon is called wind shear and usually serves as a brake to hurricane growth, Franklin said. 
 
 Patricia developed when wind shear was calm, so a natural brake was not engaged. 
 
 The structure of the storm is also a key element in how quickly it grows. The general rule is the more compact a storm, the faster it grows. 
 
 Think about an ice skater beginning a spin. At first, the skater moves slowly, arms reaching out. But as the skater moves into a fast-moving championship spin, the arms come together, making the athlete more compact. 
 
 Patricia is relatively compact, Franklin said, perhaps 10 to 15 miles across and with the area of strongest winds just three miles from the center. 
 
 A very tiny core means that the storm is not going to generate a big sprawling disturbance, which can dissipate some of the force, Franklin said. 
 
 Also helping speed growth is when there are no outer bands of rain and wind to absorb some of the forces needed for growth, as in the case of Patricia. This is a bit like the skater pulling the arms overhead and close together, he said. 
 
 "There is no good answer why one storm does this and some storms don’t,” he said of rapid growth. “It seems a natural progression if the environment allows it.” 
 
 MORE ON HURRICANE PATRICIA: 
 
 Live updates: Tens of thousands evacuate as Mexico braces for hemisphere's strongest storm on record 
 
 Category 5 hurricane growing at 'an incredible rate' 
 
 What to know about Patricia, the most intense hurricane ever recorded 

 In the past 24 hours Hurricane Patricia, bearing down on Mexico’s west coast, has rapidly intensified to become the strongest storm ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. As of this morning, data from Air Force planes show peak winds (sustained for one minute) of 200 mph and a surface pressure bottoming out at 880 millibars (typical pressure at sea level is 1013 millibars). The numbers push Patricia past the former record holders: Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. 
 
 On Friday morning the National Hurricane Center said Patricia’s winds could rise to 205 mph as it hits Mexico’s shores, which would be the highest landfall reading ever, worldwide. When “super typhoon” Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013 winds were 195 mph. 
 
 In contrast, the lowest pressure reading (the real measure of intensity) for Katrina, when it peaked in the Gulf of Mexico before drowning New Orleans, was 902 millibars. The low point for Sandy, which clobbered New York City and New Jersey, was 940. It is important to note that the extreme readings often occur when storms are still at sea, and frequently lessen before landfall—although that may not be the case for Patricia. Katrina’s top winds when it crossed the Gulf Coast were 125 mph, and when Sandy landed on New York City winds peaked at 94 mph. 
 
 Here, then, are the numbers for the Western Hemisphere’s strongest and most infamous hurricanes: 
 
 Patricia (2015): Top wind speed 200 mph; lowest atmospheric pressure 880 millibars. Threatening Mexico West Coast. 
 
 Wilma (2005): Top wind speed 185 mph; lowest atmospheric pressure 882 millibars. Struck Yucatan Peninsula and Florida. 
 
 Gilbert (1988): Top wind speed 185 mph; lowest atmospheric pressure 888 millibars. Struck Caribbean, Yucatan Peninsula, Texas. 
 
 Katrina (2005): Top wind speed 175 mph; lowest atmospheric pressure 902 millibars. Struck Gulf Coast. 
 
 Sandy (2012): Top wind speed 115 mph; lowest atmospheric pressure 940 millibars. Struck U.S. East Coast. 
 
 For more on hurricanes see our In-Depth Report.
– Hurricane Patricia—the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere—is scheduled to cut a swath of destruction along the west coast of Mexico Friday evening, the Los Angeles Times reports. Two days ago, it was a mere tropical storm. So how did it undergo what experts call "rapid intensification" and the Times calls a "hurricane explosion?" Experts say Hurricane Patricia was enabled by a perfect combination of warm water, calm atmospheric winds, and a relatively compact size. Unfortunately, that's about as specific as they can get. “We have had situations with equally warm water and with low wind shear and we don’t get a record-breaking storm,” James Franklin at the Hurricane Center tells the Times. "What is the exact combination of factors to produce a storm? I don’t think anybody really knows." The Weather Channel reports Hurricane Patricia is one of the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones ever seen in the modern world. It took two days to go from a tropical storm to a dangerous Category 5 hurricane, according to the Times. In 24 hours, sustained wind speeds jumped from 85mph to 200mph. Experts believe winds could be as high as 205mph when Hurricane Patricia makes landfall in Mexico, Scientific American reports. Those would be the highest wind speeds ever recorded at landfall. In comparison, Hurricane Katrina's were 125mph when it hit New Orleans, and Hurricane Sandy's winds were 94mph as the storm battered New York.