James McQueen, aged 9, of Cleveland, Ohio for his question:

How can a 100 mph, hurricane travel at 9 m.p.h.?

The m.p.h., of course, is the short way of writing miles per hour. We hear a lot about miles per hour when the weatherman reports a hurricane. Hurricane Carol, he reports, is traveling northeast 9  m.p.h. The wind speeds reach up to 100 m.p.h. This may sound confusing.

But, did you ever spin a top on the floor? The little top is moving in two directions. It was spinning around maybe 100 times a minute. It was moving in a path over the floor at maybe eight feet a minute. That is very much how the great hurricane moves.

A hurricane is shaped something like a giant doughnut. Its winds whirl in a spiral around the hole in the middle, They get faster as they get nearer the center; They are rated as hurricane speed when they reach 75 m.p.h. Certainly 100 m.p.h. is hurricane speed.

Meantime the whole round storm is moving northeastward. This speed is much slower. Usually, a hurricane travels at rates of speed between five and ten miles per hour. This speed is like the path of the spinning top over the floor. Inside the storm, the raging winds are like the whirling around of the top.