Extremely powerful storm in the eastern Pacific; no threat to land

If the storm system curently undergoing rapid cyclogenesis in the far eastern Pacific were about 500 miles to the east, a historic wind event would be in progress across much of WA and OR. Per the NWS Seattle discussion this PM, “a direct hit wudda been bad.” In this case, however, the “meteorological bomb,” as these types of storms have come to be called, is taking a track that will allow it to lift north and weaken off the coast before moving inland. However…it has another 24 hours or so to reach maximum strength, and it is already very impressive. A buoy near the center recently reported a surface pressure of 971 mb and sustained winds of nearly 60 mph, with a gust of 69 mph. With the system forecast to deepen at least another 10 mb, sustained hurricane-force winds of 70-85 mph are likely to occur over the open ocean, and there will be higher gusts. The storm also looks very impressive on satellite imagery. I have been compiling visible satellite and water vapor imagery loops since the genesis of this storm and hope to eventually stitch the .gif files together to post as a 48-frame loop. That remains to be seen; for now, check out the visible loop I have attached for the 8 hour period since this AM. Pretty cool. All in all…the pattern is still expected to be pretty active for this time of year, though no more “historic” storms are forseen.