--- title: Hurricane Patricia: Satellite Photo Shows How Huge Storm Was description: Hurricane Patricia—the strongest hurricane ever recorded—ultimately did little damage to Mexico, but this satellite photo shows the terrifying scale of the storm canonical: https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-24T21:22:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:03:28.553Z article:section: Science og:title: This Satellite Photo of Hurricane Patricia Shows How Huge It Really Was og:description: It's terrifying og:url: https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1acee4e48e33c3/698869b9f887dc442ae93020/mvd6722850.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3840 og:image:height: 2160 og:image:alt: MEXICO-WEATHER-HURRICANE-PATRICIA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Satellite Photo of Hurricane Patricia Shows How Huge It Really Was twitter:description: It's terrifying twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1acee4e48e33c3/698869b9f887dc442ae93020/mvd6722850.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Satellite Photo of Hurricane Patricia Shows How Huge It Really Was by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Oct 24, 2015 9:22 PM UTC  This Eumetsat satellite image shows category 5 Hurricane Patricia, off the Pacific coast of Mexico on Oct. 23, 2015. This Eumetsat satellite image shows category 5 Hurricane Patricia, off the Pacific coast of Mexico on Oct. 23, 2015.HO/AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Oct 24, 2015 9:22 PM UTC ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/"},"headline":"This Satellite Photo of Hurricane Patricia Shows How Huge It Really Was","datePublished":"2015-10-24T21:22:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:03:28.553Z","description":"Hurricane Patricia—the strongest hurricane ever recorded—ultimately did little damage to Mexico, but this satellite photo shows the terrifying scale of the storm","url":"https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/","keywords":["weather","extreme weather"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1acee4e48e33c3/698869b9f887dc442ae93020/mvd6722850.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c1acee4e48e33c3/698869b9f887dc442ae93020/mvd6722850.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MEXICO-WEATHER-HURRICANE-PATRICIA","caption":"MEXICO-WEATHER-HURRICANE-PATRICIA","creditText":"HO/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weather/","name":"weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4086186/hurricane-patricia-satellite-photo-2/","name":"This Satellite Photo of Hurricane Patricia Shows How Huge It Really Was"}}]}] ```