What's the heaviest wind you will ride in?

Eric S. Sande wrote:
:My understanding is that "hurricane" is a storm in the Atlantic, and
:"monsoon" is the same thing in the Pacific.

: I was under the impression that they were called "Typhoons" in the
: Pacific and that monsoons were more or less seasonal winds in areas
: that the US has not yet conquered.

Tai-fuun: Japanese for "big wind". But is a hurricane the same as
a typhoon? And you can't brand just any storm a hurricane can you?

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html
varis at no spam please iki fi

wrote in message
...

Eric S. Sande wrote:

:My understanding is that "hurricane" is a storm in the Atlantic, and
:"monsoon" is the same thing in the Pacific.

: I was under the impression that they were called "Typhoons" in the
: Pacific and that monsoons were more or less seasonal winds in areas
: that the US has not yet conquered.

A monsoon is a prevailing summer wind that brings rain from the tropics. A
typhoon or hurricane is not a prevailing wind, but a local event, and therefore
not a monsoon. The word monsoon originated in India, where the world's greatest
monsoon exists. The situation exists elsewhere though -- including North
America. A monsoon from the Gulf of Mexico is responsible for most of the
summer rain in the southwestern US.

Tai-fuun: Japanese for "big wind". But is a hurricane the same as
a typhoon? And you can't brand just any storm a hurricane can you?

A hurricane is the same as a typhoon -- a tropical cyclone with winds greater
than 118 km/h.

Matt O.

In article ,
says...
Eric S. Sande wrote:
:My understanding is that "hurricane" is a storm in the Atlantic, and
:"monsoon" is the same thing in the Pacific.

: I was under the impression that they were called "Typhoons" in the
: Pacific and that monsoons were more or less seasonal winds in areas
: that the US has not yet conquered.

Tai-fuun: Japanese for "big wind". But is a hurricane the same as
a typhoon? And you can't brand just any storm a hurricane can you?

Typhoons in the Pacific, Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Cyclones in the
Indian Ocean are all the same meteorological phenomenon.


--
Dave Kerber
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REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

David Kerber wrote:

: Typhoons in the Pacific, Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Cyclones in the
: Indian Ocean are all the same meteorological phenomenon.

So the label is based on the location of the phenomenon, not on
the speaker's linguistic identity or the hearer's nationality?

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html
varis at no spam please iki fi

In article ,
says...
David Kerber wrote:

: Typhoons in the Pacific, Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Cyclones in the
: Indian Ocean are all the same meteorological phenomenon.

So the label is based on the location of the phenomenon, not on
the speaker's linguistic identity or the hearer's nationality?

That's right; if you watch the news, they might talk about hurricane
Isabel threatening Bermuda in the Atlantic, and then mention typhoon
Mike in the Pacific threatening Japan. The roots of each word are from
the local languages in each area, but the convention for usage still
stands wrt location.

--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.