Jeff Hoch, age 8, of San Anselmo, Calif., for his question:

ARE TORNADOES THE SAME AS HURRICANES?

Tornadoes visit certain places; hurricanes visit other places. But neither of these wild storms is likely to visit the fair city of San Francisco. There the people learn about them from reports in the newspaper and on the television. And the dreadful damage done by hurricanes and tornadoes seems to be the same. Actually these fierce storms are different  and so is the damage they do.

A hurricane is a huge storm, several hundred miles wide. It sweeps in from the sea, dashing wild waves far over the land. It lashes and dashes down buildings for miles, and often keeps blowing for two or three days. A tornado is a small storm, less than a mile wide. It strikes down from a cloud and wipes out a narrow path of total destruction. Its winds are wilder than hurricane winds, and it does more damage over a fairly small area. But the whole thing is over in a few minutes.