Hurricane Faith - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

The origins of Hurricane Faith were from an area of disturbed weather that emerged into the Atlantic along the west coast of Africa on August 18. Moving off Africa, Television Infrared Observation Satellite XI (TIROS XI) had indicated that the system became a poorly defined tropical depression and was associated with a circular mass of convection. The area of disturbed weather traced westward, eventually becoming Tropical Depression Eight on August 21.

Continuing westward, Tropical Depression Eight intensified, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Faith the day after developing. Gradually intensification persisted as Tropical Storm Faith headed nearly due westward, and strengthened enough to become a hurricane on August 23. Curving slightly west-northwestward, Hurricane Faith reached category 2 intensity and briefly peaked at sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h). Hurricane Faith curved to the northwest, and weakened back to a category 1 hurricane while nearing the northeastern Leeward Islands on August 25. By passing the Leeward Islands, Faith remained a category 1 hurricane until re-intensifying into category 2 hurricane on August 28, while it had situated near Turks and Caicos Islands. After becoming a category 2 hurricane again, Faith quickly intensified into a category 3 hurricane only six hours later. Immediately upon becoming a category 3 hurricane, Faith had reached its maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h), although the minimum barometric pressure was not recorded at this time.

After reaching maximum sustained winds late on August 28, Hurricane Faith began to gradually weaken back, and had dropped down to category 2 intensity early on August 30 while moving slowly north-northwest. Weakening back to a category 2 hurricane, Faith turned northeastward at almost halfway between Bermuda and Florida. Hurricane Faith remained well away from the United States East Coast and Atlantic Canada when it veered eastward on September 1. Heading eastward, Hurricane Faith began to accelerate and eventually curved northeastward. Nearing Europe, Hurricane Faith moved as fast as 48 mph (76 km/h) while just south of Iceland. After remaining a category 2 hurricane since August 29, Hurricane Faith finally weakened back to a category 1 hurricane early on September 6, while close to the Faroe Islands. Entering the North Sea, Hurricane Faith finally transitioned into an extratropical storm. Transitioning into an extratropical storm, the remnants headed westward and affected Norway with winds as high as 60 mph (95 km/h). Tracking over Scandinavia, the extratropical storm weakened to the equivalency of a tropical depression before entering the Soviet Union (present day Russia), and later degenerated into an extratropical low. The extratropical low pressure area headed northward, and retained its identity as far north as Franz Josef Land, which is roughly 600 mi (966 km) from the North Pole.