??

[swmochic]

How far inland can a hurricane reach?

[jfranklin]

Good question. Offhand, I do not know what the historical record shows as the farthest inland hurricane. It would depend on how strong the hurricane was at landfall, the speed of motion perpendicular to the coast, and to some extent the topography.

Some colleagues have developed a model for estimating the decay of tropical cyclones as they move inland, and the results of this model are posted on the NHC web site at

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutmeow.shtml

You will see some links for storms of various strengths and forward speeds - diagrams of how far inland winds of various thresholds will penetrate. Looks like hurricane force winds can go inland a couple hundred miles.

James