What made Cyclone Patricia so interesting was the rapid way it gained strength to be the most dangerous category five hurricane ever recorded. It went from being a tropical storm to this mega cyclone in a matter of hours. People are attributing the strong El Nino that is developing with very warm ocean temperatures to the rapid acceleration of the winds and strength of the storm.
The other thing to note is that Mexico dodged a bullet when the storm came ashore in a relatively low population area. As noted on this NPR Morning Edition story on the storm, if this same event had happened on the Florida coast the damages could have been catastrophic.
This aspect of being "lucky" is one that haunts emergency managers. I think in most respects when it comes to disasters, we end up being "lucky" more than not, with the worst case not developing. This false sense of security that is transmitted to our communities because "we dodged another one" is something we have to overcome--when our luck runs out and and you have Super Storm Sandy come ashore at high tide.
