What's The Difference Between A Hurricane And Typhoon?

By Steve Pool

Summary

Aside from the name, not much. Both are severe tropical systems that have wind speeds greater than 74 mph.

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Story Published: Mar 17, 2003 at 2:20 PM PST

Story Updated: Aug 30, 2006 at 11:59 PM PST

What's The Difference Between A Hurricane And Typhoon?
SEATTLE - Aside from the name, not much. Both are severe tropical systems that have wind speeds greater than 74 mph.

They are called "hurricanes" in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. But once your go west across the International Dateline and into the western Pacific Ocean, they're called typhoons. And of course, the Australians, who have colorful names for just about everything, have their own term for hurricanes: "willy-willys."

Typhoons generally tend to be stronger than hurricanes, but only because there's warmer water in the western Pacific and are better conditions for storm development. And they've been known to affect Seattle: Some of our strongest windstorms ever recorded were remnants of a typhoon in the western Pacific.