10 Largest Hurricanes Ever Recorded - Largest.org (2023)

FAQs

What is the largest hurricane ever recorded in the world? ›

Typhoon Tip was the largest tropical cyclone on record, with a diameter of 1,380 mi (2,220 km)—almost double the previous record of 700 mi (1,130 km) in diameter set by Typhoon Marge in August 1951. At its largest, Tip was nearly half the size of the contiguous United States.

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was, and still is, the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States. The hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, as a Category 4 hurricane.

There is no such thing as an F6 tornado, even though Ted Fujita plotted out F6-level winds. The Fujita scale, as used for rating tornados, only goes up to F5. Even if a tornado had F6-level winds, near ground level, which is *very* unlikely, if not impossible, it would only be rated F5.

With a wind speed of 185 mph at landfall, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 is the strongest hurricane ever to hit the United States. It was also the first recorded Category 5 storm in the country's history.

1. Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The “Great” Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is by far the deadliest natural disaster to impact the United States.

Only one hurricane in world history would rank as a category 7: Hurricane Patricia of 2015, which peaked with 215-mph sustained winds off the Pacific coast of Mexico.

The 1899 San Ciríaco hurricane, also known as the 1899 Puerto Rico Hurricane or The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1899, was the longest-lived Atlantic hurricane on record, and the second-longest-lived tropical cyclone globally on record (in terms of tropical duration) after 1994's Hurricane John in the Pacific.

Has there ever been a hurricane stronger than a Category 5? ›

Only four hurricanes have ever hit the mainland US with winds stronger than Ian's and all were deadly Category 5 storms -- the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The original Fujita Scale actually goes up to F12. An F12 tornado would have winds of about 740 MPH, the speed of sound. Roughly 3/4 of all tornadoes are EF0 or EF1 tornadoes and have winds that are less than 100 MPH.

A Category 8 is a hypothetical Saffir-Simpson rating beyond the Category 5 rating which has never officially been recorded in human history.

Scanning over 80 years (since 1921) worth of hurricane track data suggests that remnants of a hurricane or tropical storm make their way into the Great Lakes region on an average of twice a decade, especially the southern Great Lakes area (see Table-1).

Only four Category 5 hurricanes have ever made landfall in the mainland U.S., according to records from the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Weather Channel and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The strongest tropical cyclone recorded worldwide, as measured by minimum central pressure, was Typhoon Tip, which reached a pressure of 870 hPa (25.69 inHg) on October 12, 1979.

The storm made landfall in Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, then moved into the Gulf of Mexico where it intensified into a Category 5. When it made landfall in southeast Louisiana on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina was classified as a Category 3, with recorded wind speeds of 140 miles per hour.

If you stare at a map of where hurricanes have made landfall in the United States since 1851, you'll notice an enormous void over the Mid-Atlantic coast. Virginia, Maryland and Delaware have never been directly struck. Southern New Jersey has only been hit once.

“Alligators likely hunker down to weather a storm by finding easy to get in and out of places,” he adds. Some smaller gators may get swept away by hurricanes; others might change their foraging patterns altogether to stay safe. Other species may be less lucky.

Most Poweful Hurricane EVER Recorded – Over 200 mph-typhoon-haiyan. It is the most powerful weather storm ever recorded in our history. Super Typhoon (called Hurricanes in the U.S.) Haiyan just hit the Philippines with winds over 220 miles per hour!

What hurricane names will never be used again? ›

According to the WMO's initial policy established in 2006, Greek-letter named storms could never be retired, "lest an irreplaceable chunk be taken out of the alphabet." Therefore, devastating 2020 hurricanes Eta and Iota would have been retired as "Eta 2020" and "Iota 2020" respectively, but the letter names themselves ...

Since the naming of Atlantic tropical cyclones ditched the phonetic alphabet in 1953, 94 Atlantic tropical cyclone names have been retired, including 2021's Ida, 2020's Laura, 2019's Dorian, 2018's Florence and Michael, and 2017's Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate.

The storm then hit Cozumel as a 1,000-mile-wide storm, with a 30-mile-wide eye, 37.5-mile-wide eyewall, and 300 mph (480 km/h) winds and a pressure of 750 millibars.

In total, NOAA says only 37 recorded Atlantic hurricanes since 1924 have reached Category 5 wind speeds at some time in their lifetime. All but one of these storms, Lorenzo in 2019, made landfall, but only four maintained Category 5 winds as they came ashore in the mainland U.S.

The Great Red Spot is a giant, spinning storm in Jupiter's atmosphere. It is like a hurricane on Earth, but it is much larger. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is more than twice the size of Earth! Winds inside this storm reach speeds of about 270 miles per hour.

An average person could be moved by a 67 mph wind, and an average car can be moved by a 90 mph wind. Isn't it great how math can help us with so many questions?

Hurricane/Typhoon John — 1994 (East Pacific)

Hurricane/Typhoon John holds the Guinness World Record for longest lasting tropical cyclone at 31 full calendar days, lasting from Aug. 11 - Sept. 11, 1994.

Katrina was a large storm with a very distinct eye. Early on the 28th, Katrina reached a minimum central pressure of 902mb (at the peak) - ranking 7th lowest on record for all Atlantic Basin hurricanes - and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 (175mph).

What was the deadliest US hurricane to hit the US? ›

Galveston, Texas Hurricane of 1900

Considered the deadliest U.S. natural disaster, the Category 4 hurricane in Galveston, Texas, destroyed more than 3,600 buildings with 135 mph winds, according to the History Channel. The estimated death toll is in a range from 6,000 to 12,000.

Great Red Spot, a long-lived enormous storm system on the planet Jupiter and the most conspicuous feature of its visible cloud surface. It is generally reddish in colour, slightly oval in shape, and approximately 16,350 km (10,159 miles) wide—large enough to engulf Earth.

Jupiter is well-known for being the biggest planet in our solar system, and it's also home to the biggest storm. It's called the Great Red Spot, an enormous vortex that has been swirling for centuries.

At the other end of our solar system you have gas giant planets Uranus and Neptune. The latter, our most distant planet, is home to frozen methane clouds and the most violent winds in the solar system.