Storm rolls east

Posted at 4:30 PM on February 9, 2010 by Paul Huttner (1 Comments)

Winter storm warnings stretch from Iowa to the east coast Tuesday afternoon.

Our 45 hour marathon winter storm is in the books for Minnesota, but the rampage continues. As many as 18 states are under winter storm warnings late Tuesday as the impressive and long lasting storm rolls east.

Snowfall totals of one foot or more are forecast or occurring from Chicago to Washington D.C. as the system cranks out more snow. This is truly becoming the winter of discontent for many in the USA.

This storm has an interesting and rather unusual path. It tracked south from the Arctic Circle into the eastern Dakotas before swinging east into southern Illinois on the trip to the east coast.

It may surprise many to know that storms can travel thousands of miles and maintain the parent circulation. There have been documented instances of Mongolian dust storms completely circling the globe in 9 days. In 1966 Hurricane Faith crossed the Atlantic twice and moved from he tropics to nearly the north pole. Faith has the longest documented path of any hurricane on record.

Track of Hurricane Faith in 1966.

In the Pacific Hurricane John lasted an incredible 31 days as a tropical cyclone.

Hurricane John in 1994.

As our neighbors to the east dig out, we can be thankful for a break in the snowfall. And we can also hope the same storm doesn't circle the big upper low over northeast Canada and hit us again in a week or so.

PH

Comments (1)

After this storm left the East Coast, where did it go? Has it made another trip around the globe yet?

Posted by Chris B. Critter | February 16, 2010 10:39 AM

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