What is the difference between a hurricane and typhoon?

The Taino people of Haiti lived in dread of the fierce storms that ripped across their Island, They named this type of storm with their word for an evil spirit The Spanish borrowed their word and call it a hurricane. Unknown to the people of the West Indies, the people of the China Seas also dreaded a similar fierce storm. The Cantonese word for such a storm was tai‑fung, which meant big wind. Visitors from Europe translated the word to typhoon.

A modern weatherman would call either of these storms a tropical cyclone. He would tell you that such storms rip along certain paths over the globe. There are six major areas where tropical cyclones gather and move along well worn paths. All of them are alike in formation and behavior. All of them are dreaded on land and sea.

Find the big map o the world in your gift encyclopedia, You will notice that the birth pace of the tropical cyclones is always over a expanse of water begin between  10 degrees North and 10 and 15 degrees South of the equator. Those north of the equator wreck their worst havoc between August and October. Those south of the equator rip forth between January and March. Summer and fall are the seasons for tropical cyclones.

A nest of these storms is near the West Indies These are the howlers that sweep into the Gulf of Mexico or up the eastern coast of America. There is also a nest off the west coast of Mexico and Central America. These howlers turn north and usually east over the Pacific. Occasionally one brushes the coast of California.

Tropical cyclones also breed off the Philippines and in the China Sea. The people of the Philippines cell them baginos. They vent their fury over Indonesia, the China coast and Japan. Other :tropical cycl6nes are brewed across the world in the Bay of Bengal. There they are called cyclones. They rip along both the east and west coasts of India. All these storms are hatched in the northern hemisphere. Their paths move westward and north.

Tropical cyclones of the southern hemisphere also move westward. But their paths then veer to the south. One southern breeding spot is  in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. These storms may graze the island of Madagascar. But most of them veer out to die over the ocean. Another hotbed is around the Fiji Islands and Samoa of the South Pacific. Storms from this area may graze the eastern coast of .­Australia.

Tropical cyclones were named locally before the weatherman started comparing notes. They were given different names by the peoples who lived In their dreaded paths. But the weatherman have shown that the typhoon of the China Seas, the hurricane of the West Indies, the bagino of the Philippines and the cyclone of the Indian Ocean are all the same kind of storms ‑ all are tropical hurricanes.