typhoon

The Sailor's Word-Book

The Chinese word for a great wind, applied to hurricanes or cyclones. They are revolving storms of immense force, occurring most frequently in those parts of the world which are subject to monsoons, and take place at those seasons when the monsoons are changing. They seem to be eddies formed by the meeting of opposing currents of air for instance, the westerly winds near the equator and the easterly winds of higher latitudes which accounts for the important fact that these storms revolve in opposite directions in the two hemispheres in the southern with, in the northern against, the hands of a watch; but the circular tendency in both supports the name of cyclone.

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