What is the longest distance a hurricane has ever traveled?
Valerie Jenkins
Dear Valerie,
Based on records from the Tropical Prediction Center, the honors for the longest hurricane track goes to Hurricane Faith in 1966–a storm that traveled about 7,500 miles from its formation off the west coast of Africa as a tropical depression on Aug. 21 to its demise in the Arctic Ocean on Sept. 7. At its peak, Faith was a Category 3 storm with top winds of 120 m.p.h. as it passed east of the Bahamas. Hurricane Faith brought 100 m.p.h. winds to the Faeroe Islands, located between Scotland and Iceland, and then as an extratropical storm slammed portions of Scandinavia with winds in excess of 60 m.p.h. The remnants of Faith were actually tracked by the Swedish Meteorological Service all the way to Franz Josef Land in Russia, located north of 80 (degrees) N latitude.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
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