Hurricanes form in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and also in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of Central America. While the Atlantic hurricanes usually affect the Carribean islands, the Gulf Coast and Atlantic coast of the U.S. and the east coast of Central America, the Pacific hurricanes affect the west coast of Central America, and sometimes California and Hawaii.
Typhoons are the storms that form in the tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean.
They usually affect Southeast Asia, Japan, China and the Phillipines. This has been perhaps the most active hurricane season in the Atlantic this century. Hurricanes were first given names in the 1930s because it was too confusing to keep track of several hurricanes when they were plotted using latitude and longitude. Because they form in different areas, Atlantic hurricanes, Pacific hurricanes and typhoons all have different name lists. In 1988 hurricane Joan moved from the Atlantic Ocean through the Carribean Sea and across Central America into the Pacific Ocean.