George Eggers, age 10, of Ashland, Wisconsin, for his question:

Are there really storms called wills willies?

The people who live in northern Australia call a certain kind of storm wills willies? This most destructive type of storm is shaped like a gigantic doughnut, maybe 400 miles wide. It travels along with thunder and lightning and raging winds that spiral around the center. Over the sea, it whips up a wild tidal wave. When it moves over the land, it flattens tall trees and buildings in a path of destruction.

This type of storm brews up over several parts of the world ocean and often sweeps inland. It is hard to invent a suitable word for it and people in different parts of the world have concocted their own names. We call it a heirricane or cyclone. Those that brew in the North Pacific and bash Pacific islands and the China coast are called typhoons. Another set of these storms brews up over the oceans north of Australia and moves in to devastate the coastal regions. Australians call these hurricane type storms the wills willies.