Margaret Roc he, age 11, of Dorchester, Mass., for her questions

How does a hurricane differ from a typhoon?

These huge, raging storms occur in several parts of the world, traveling well‑worm paths over land and sea. The general name for such a storm is tropical cyclone. But it usually has a local name. In the West Indies and in North America it is called a hurricane. In the western Pacific it is called a typhoon. In the Indian Ocean it is called a cyclone and in the Philippines it is called a bagnino.

No matter what local name it has, the tropical cyclone always follows more or less the same pattern. The storm is shaped like a doughnut and is 300 to 600 miles across. Howling winds spiral towards the center, where there is a region of calm from 12 to 20 miles wide.