BONNIE WORLD TOUR?
Former Invest 94L/PTC2/Tropical Storm/Hurricane Bonnie, finally meets her demise becoming post-tropical on July 9th after a 17 day journey off the African coast. Having started as a strong tropical wave south of the Cabo Verde Islands back on June 23rd, and almost immediately getting an AOI (area of interest) tag, followed by an Invest tag (94L) the same day, the system made the trek across the Atlantic, got tagged Potential Tropical Cyclone #2 on June 27th, as it approached the southern Windward Islands and coast of South America. Still not attaining a closed circulation to become a cyclone, PTC2 scraped across the northern coast of South America before entering the southwestern Caribbean. Finally on July 1st, a closed circulation was found and Bonnie was born.
Bonnie then slammed into the southern coast of Nicaragua as a tropical storm, maintained tropical storm status crossing Central America and splashed down in the eastern Pacific, thus keeping the name Bonnie. The 1st such Atlantic to Pacific crossover to do so since Otto in 2016. Bonnie then traveled well south of the coast of Mexico, paralleling it, and becoming a cat 3 hurricane in the process. On the 9th, she finally petered out almost 1,300 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California.
There's a lot of talk in the Weatherverse about the distance that Bonnie traveled rivaling some of the longest traveled storms of all time. The problem is, those record breaking storms Bonnie is being compared to, their distances have been measured from when they became a closed circulation cyclone until they became post-tropical. Bonnie is being talked about from when it was a tropical wave just off the African coast. Tropical waves, Invests, and Potential Tropical Cyclones are NOT cyclones.
John formed in the eastern Pacific a little less than 200 miles south of the Mexico/Guatemala border, becoming a tropical depression. Tropical depressions ARE cyclones. Later on the same day, it hit tropical storm strength and became John. From there it took 8 days before John became a hurricane near the point where it was about to enter the Central Pacific basin, which it did a day later. The Eastern Pacific hurricane basin runs out to 140°W longitude. From there it's the Central Pacific basin, which runs out to the International Date Line where it becomes the Western Pacific basin.
John, in the Central Pacific, reached category 5 status as it moved well south of the Hawaiian Islands. John kept heading west and eventually crossed the International Date Line putting it in the Western Pacific basin, where after weakening to a tropical storm, re-strengthened to hurricane intensity. In the western Pacific, however, hurricanes are called typhoons, so it became Typhoon John. John did a loop out in the middle of the Pacific, re-entered the central Pacific basin passing to the north of Midway Island, became a hurricane again, before finally becoming extratropical about 1,000 miles south of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
Total distanced traveled as a cyclone, apporoximately 8,190 miles, covering 3 tropical basins. What doesn't count in the totals, however, is the time before it became a depression. John is thought to have been a tropical wave that came off the African coast in late July of '94, made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and crossed Central America before forming into a cyclone south of Mexico. Tropical waves are not cyclones, of course, so that part doesn't get included in the journey, but the wave that started it all came off the African coast, crossed the Atlantic into Central America, passed south of Mexico, passed south of Hawaii, crossed the International Date Line, and died while heading to Alaska. That would add another 4,000 miles or so.
That brings us to Bonnie. From the time Bonnie was tagged an Invest off the African coast, until it's demise, almost reaching the central Pacific basin, the travel distance is approximately 6,209 miles. Pretty impressive. The problem is, Bonnie may have been tagged an Invest off the African coast, but Invests are not cyclones. Even when Bonnie was tagged Potential Tropical Cyclone #2, it was still not a cyclone. Bonnie didn't become a cyclone until it almost crossed the entire Atlantic basin, doing so just 230 miles from the Nicaraguan coast. As a cyclone, Bonnie's travel distance is set at about 2,863 miles. That is far from any distance records.
Hurricane Faith (1966) holds the record in the Atlantic basin of 6,850 miles. Hurricane Florence just 4 years ago traveled about 3,400 miles, from just south of the Cabo Verde Islands off the African coast until it became post-tropical over West Virginia. And there's been a ton of storms that have formed near Cabo Verde and made that trek across the Atlantic, into the U.S. East coast, or into the Caribbean, and even into the Gulf of Mexico, and those distances range from 3,000-4,000 miles or so. So Bonnie's time as a cyclone is probably not even in the top 20 for distance traveled.
Of course, about 2,530 of the 2,863 miles Bonnie traveled as a cyclone, came in Pacific waters. There are tons of storms there as well that have traveled from near the Central American coast and into the Central Pacific basin. Bonnie was about 600 miles from even reaching that point. So, of the 6,200+ miles you might hear people talking about that Bonnie traveled, over 3,300 of that was as a tropical wave that doesn't count. Bonnie is nowhere close to any distance records for tropical cyclones. But still a nice run as a tropical disturbance.
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