Roaring Forties

The Roaring Forties are the strong, persistent westerly winds between 40 and 50 degrees south, where the Southern Hemisphere westerly belt meets a nearly unbroken ocean. With little land to slow the flow, winds routinely reach gale force and the seas run high and long, the swell that drives the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Southern Ocean storm track. The belt steepens further south into the Furious Fifties and Screaming Sixties. Clipper ships exploited it for fast eastbound passages between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, and modern round-the-world sailing routes still ride these winds.