SV: Nor'easters in Duckburg

[Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.]

Katie Sullivan <vazali at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It could be argued that a few generations
> ago "hurricane" was popularly used to refer
> to ANY windstorm, regardless of its tropical
> origin. Nowadays the word is, as far as I
> know, exclusively used to refer to large
> circular weather systems originating in
> the tropics, with winds over 74 mph.

This seems to be wrong. In a Norwegian encyclopaedia I have found a correct
definition for "orkan" (=hurricane). It says that hurricane is the strongest
wind-strength in Beuforts scale (strength 12 = over 32,6 meters per second).
This definition fits well with how the word is used in Norwegian.

By the way what is 74 mph. in meters per second? Can anyone here come up
with a formula for that?

Sigvald