Tornado Safety Hints External Links Introduction Parts of the USA and Canada sometimes suffer extreme weather conditions which you may not be familiar with if you are visiting from another country. This page offers some basic advice. The name given in the USA and Canada to what is called a thunderstorm in Britain. Funnel Cloud A tornado which has not yet touched down. Hurricane A tropical cyclone which originates over an ocean, particularly in the West Indian region, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific.
Hurricanes only occur north of the equator.
In a hurricane high velocity winds blow circularly around a low pressure centre called the eye of the storm. According to one source a hurricane is defined by having winds in excess of 70 miles per hour. The area affected by destructive winds can be greater than 150 miles in diameter, with gale force winds covering up to 300 miles in diameter. Hurricanes generally move in a parabolic curved path, usually first in a northwesterly direction at 5 to 20mph and then later northeast at up to 50mph. The National Hurricane Centre in Florida tracks and predicts the path of each storm.