What’s the Difference Between a Hurricane and Typhoon?
In this Week in Rap, we report on the Typhoon Roke's destruction in Japan. But what makes this storm a typhoon, instead of a hurricane? Many people have the misconception that the rotational direction of a storm affects its name. But that just isn't true. Instead, it's a matter of location. Typhoons and hurricanes are both technically "tropical cyclones." A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that begins west of the International Date Line in the Atlantic and a typhoon begins east of that line. And according to this article, the name difference isn't scientific; it's cultural. Typhoon comes from the…