A hurricane is a huge storm that can be 600 miles across and have winds as high as 200 miles per hour. The storm usually lasts for about a week and it gathers its energy from the warm ocean waters. Below you will find some interesting facts about hurricanes.

  1. A hurricane can drop more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain in one day.
  2. The waves that are created by hurricanes can toss tons of fish onto beaches.
  3. The amount of energy that one hurricane produces can run the lights in Las Vegas for a number of years.
  4. In 1495, the first know report of a hurricane was written by Christopher Columbus.
  5. There has been a single hurricane raging for over 300 years on Jupiter and it is bigger than the earth.
  6. The deadliest hurricane on record occurred in 1970 in Bangladesh. The storm killed more than 250,000 people.
  7. Due to low-lying areas, most of the deadliest hurricanes occur in India and Asia.
  8. Hurricane Katrina caused the most monetary damages worldwide with damages estimated over 100 million.
  9. Hurricane Camille was the strongest hurricane to hit land with winds of 210 miles per hour.
  10. Hurricanes can reach as high as 50,000 feet into the atmosphere.
  11. The Carioles Force is very weak at the equator; therefore a hurricane will never form there.
  12. Hurricanes help balance the temperature of the earth by moving tropical air toward the poles.
  13. Nuns tied themselves to children in the orphanages ruing the Galveston hurricane in 1900. The flood water was so swift that they were found still tied together, but sadly they had all drowned.
  14. In 1944, pilots started flying into hurricanes; four planes have been lost with no trace of the planes or crew.
  15. A hurricane can last for weeks, however, they usually only last 10 days.
  16. There were eight Category 5 hurricanes between 2000-2009.
  17. In 1994, Hurricane John last 31 days. This is the longest hurricane in history.
  18. Florida is hit by 40% of the hurricanes that occur in the Atlantic.
  19. Fifteen hurricanes formed in 2005 during the Atlantic hurricane season.
  20. Most of the deaths occur during a hurricane are caused by flooding.

Hurricanes will never cease to exist but scientists are learning more and more about these storms and how to keep those that live in hurricane prone areas safe.