What are hurricanes?Hurricanes are part of a family of storms called tropical cyclones – storms that rotate rapidly around a low-pressure centre and produce heavy rain and strong winds. If one of these storms hits a sustained top wind speed of 119 kilometres an hour and appears in the Atlantic or eastern North Pacific, it qualifies as a hurricane. (Similar storms in the western North Pacific are called typhoons.) The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale goes up from there, through to Category 5, which has no ceiling and represents storms with wind speeds greater than 252 km/h. Anything from Category 3 and up is a “major” hurricane.
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Source: How do hurricanes form? A lesson in the science behind the storm – The Globe and Mail