Mary Lanning, age 11, of Tyler, Texas, for her question:

Do hurricanes start over the Pacific Ocean?

The most disastrous hurricanes that strike us are hatched in the mid Atlantic Ocean. But there are seven other regions where these wild storms develop and start on their wild paths of destruction. The world’s worst hurricanes and the greatest number of them are known as typhoons. They hatch over the Pacific near the Marshall Islands and rage westward toward the China Sea.

There are several hurricane nests in the Pacific south of the equator. Some sweep the shores of Australia while others blow toward the eastern coast of Africa. There is another small breeding ground off the western coast of Mexico. The hurricanes hatched here may strike the coast of California, but as a rule they do not travel so far to the north.