w A hurricane can last for more than two weeks as it travels across the ocean and up a coastline. w A tropical storm has
Hurricane Facts
Did You Know? w Hurricanes are most likely to form June through November. The height of the season is September. w A hurricane can last for more than two weeks as it travels across the ocean and up a coastline. w A tropical storm has winds of 39 to 73 miles (63 to 117 kilometers) an hour. Higher winds mean it’s a hurricane. w The largest storm recorded in Florida wasn’t named. It hit the Keys as a category 5 in 1935. w One of the first human records of hurricanes appears in Mayan hieroglyphics. w It is the Mayan god of wind “Hurakan” that became our word “hurricane.” w The first people to live on Bermuda were en-route to Virginia in 1609 when a hurricane dashed them onto the island. w Hurricanes hit the state of Maine on the average over the past 360 years once every eight years. However, since 1960, the frequency is closer to one storm every two years. w Hurricanes, as they are called in much of the Western Hemisphere, are called Typhoons in the West- ern Pacific, and Cyclones in the Indian Ocean and in Australia. w The deadliest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere occurred in 1780.
