Hurricanes got their names from a tribe of Indians in Guatemala. The name comes from one tribe's gods. This god's name was Hanraken. He was the god of stormy weather. Later, scientists started giving hurricanes human names because hurricanes are a lot like humans. They are born, they mature, and in the end they die. Hurricanes occur most in the summer. Other than the summer, hurricanes occur in August and in September. Hurricanes have a wind speed, meaning how fast the wind swirls around, of 75 m.p.h. Even though hurricanes have a high wind speed, it doesn't mean that they are fast. Hurricanes move at speeds of only 10 to 20 m.p.h.

People in North America call hurricanes, hurricanes but is it a international name? No, it isn't. It has different names all over the world. In the area around the northern part of the Indian Ocean people call hurricanes cyclones. In China, Japan, and Formosa they are called typhoons. In Australia the people call a hurricane a willy-willy. In the Philippine Islands they are called baguios. At the Cape of Good Hope, hurricanes are called trovadoes. Finally, on the west coast of Central America, they are called papagallos.