Jan Powers, age 13, of Winston Salem, N. C., for the question:

What are Willy Willies?

There are two kinds of Willy  Willies. One is related to the heeby jeebies   a spell of nervous irritation which often goes with a spell of tiresome weather. The really true Willy Willies, however, are definitely related to the weather. In fact they are spills of very stormy weather.

In North America, we know about the howling hurricanes that sweep up the east coast. The technical name for such a storm is a tropical cyclone. They occur in various parts of the world and wherever they strike, the people have a local name for them. In the Philippines and along the coast of China, they are called typhoons. Tropical cyclones also strike the northwestern coast of Australia and here they are called Willy Willies .