These hurricane trivia questions and answers come in four rounds: how a hurricane forms and its parts, the five categories of the wind scale, how storms are named, and hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones around the world and in history.
Read the full guide
Four rounds
How a hurricane forms, and its parts covers the eyewall, the storm tide and the wind speeds that turn a depression into a storm and a storm into a hurricane. The five categories of the wind scale asks where each category begins. How storms are named runs from saints' days to the lists kept today. Around the world and in history takes in Galveston in 1900 and the divine wind of 1281.
Science and history, not advice
Nothing here is a forecast or a warning; for those, go to your national weather service. Tap a choice to check it; the reason and the page it was read on appear with the answer.
Questions and answers
What are some easy hurricane trivia questions?
At which wind speed does a tropical storm become a hurricane? In which city is the National Hurricane Center? What is the ring of clouds around the eye called? The answers are 74 mph, Miami and the eyewall.
What are the five categories of hurricane?
By sustained wind: Category 1 is 74 to 95 mph, Category 2 is 96 to 110, Category 3 is 111 to 129, Category 4 is 130 to 156 and Category 5 is 157 mph or higher. Category 3 and above are major hurricanes.
Why are hurricane names retired?
A name leaves the list when a storm was so deadly or costly that using it again would be insensitive. A committee of the World Meteorological Organization then picks a replacement.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 2, 2026 on the page linked under it: the National Hurricane Center's own pages for 35 questions, Wikipedia for the rest. Strongest and costliest rankings are left out. This site is not affiliated with the Center.
A storm surge raises the sea. What is the storm tide?Answer: The actual sea level from the ordinary tide and the surge together. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
A tropical cyclone can fade away when it moves over water much cooler than what temperature?Answer: 26.5 degrees Celsius (79.7 Fahrenheit). Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone makes landfall at the moment when which part of it crosses the coast?Answer: Its center at the surface. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
A tropical storm has sustained winds from 39 mph up to how many miles per hour?Answer: 73. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
At which sustained wind speed does a tropical storm become a hurricane?Answer: 74 mph. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
Forecasters speak of rapid intensification when the top winds rise by at least 30 knots in how long?Answer: 24 hours. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
How does the National Hurricane Center describe the winds inside the eye of a hurricane?Answer: Comparatively light. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
How wide is the eye of a tropical cyclone, typically?Answer: 30 to 65 kilometers. Source: Wikipedia: Eye (cyclone)
In an advisory, what does the word extratropical say about a cyclone?Answer: It has lost its tropical characteristics. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
Tropical cyclones rarely form within how many degrees of the equator?Answer: 5. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone
What is a dropsonde?Answer: A weather device dropped from an aircraft to take readings as it falls. Source: Wikipedia: Dropsonde
What is a tropical cyclone called when its top sustained winds are 38 mph or less?Answer: A tropical depression. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
What is it called when a new eyewall forms outside the first one?Answer: An eyewall replacement cycle. Source: Wikipedia: Eye (cyclone)
What is the Fujiwhara effect?Answer: Two nearby tropical cyclones turning about each other. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
What is the ring of towering clouds around the eye of a hurricane called?Answer: The eyewall. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
Where does a tropical cyclone get its energy?Answer: From water evaporating off the ocean surface. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone
Which way do the surface winds of a tropical cyclone blow in the Northern Hemisphere?Answer: Counterclockwise. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone
The five categories of the wind scale 15
A hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph belongs to which category?Answer: Category 2. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
After the Atlantic season of 2005, what did a few columnists and scientists suggest adding to the scale?Answer: A Category 6. Source: Wikipedia: Saffir–Simpson scale
At which height above the surface is that sustained wind taken?Answer: 10 meters. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
Category 1 covers sustained winds from 74 mph up to how many miles per hour?Answer: 95. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
Category 3 begins at which sustained wind speed?Answer: 111 mph. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
Category 5 begins at which sustained wind speed?Answer: 157 mph. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
From which category upward is a hurricane called a major hurricane?Answer: Category 3. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
In the United States, a hurricane's sustained wind is the highest average over what length of time?Answer: One minute. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
In the western North Pacific, the term super typhoon is used for sustained winds above what speed?Answer: 150 mph. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
In which year did Herbert Saffir and Robert Simpson develop the scale?Answer: 1971. Source: Wikipedia: Saffir–Simpson scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale rates a hurricane from 1 to 5 by which single measure?Answer: Its maximum sustained wind speed. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
The United Nations asked the engineer Herbert Saffir to study what?Answer: Low-cost housing in places prone to hurricanes. Source: Wikipedia: Saffir–Simpson scale
Which category covers sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph?Answer: Category 4. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
Which of these hazards does the wind scale leave out?Answer: Storm surge. Source: National Hurricane Center: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
Which post did Robert Simpson hold from 1967 to 1974?Answer: Director of the National Hurricane Center. Source: Wikipedia: Robert Simpson (meteorologist)
How storms are named 15
A tropical cyclone forms on December 28. From which list does it take its name?Answer: The list of the season just ended. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Names
Before 1953 the United States spent two years naming storms from which list?Answer: A phonetic alphabet: Able, Baker, Charlie. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
Clement Wragge began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century. In which country was he a meteorologist?Answer: Australia. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
During World War II, which forecasters took up the habit of giving storms women's names?Answer: Army and Navy meteorologists. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
For several hundred years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after what?Answer: The saint's day on which the storm struck. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
How many names are on each year's regular list for the Atlantic?Answer: 21. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Names
How many names are on each year's regular list for the eastern North Pacific?Answer: 24. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Names
In which year did the United States begin using women's names for storms?Answer: 1953. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
In which year were men's names added to the lists for the Atlantic?Answer: 1979. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
The practice of retiring storm names began in 1955, after which three hurricanes of the year before?Answer: Carol, Edna and Hazel. Source: Wikipedia: List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
Short names for storms took the place of which older way of identifying them?Answer: Latitude and longitude. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
Two hurricanes named San Felipe struck the same island, both on a September 13. Which island?Answer: Puerto Rico. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
When is the name of a hurricane taken off the list for good?Answer: When the storm was so deadly or costly that using the name again would be insensitive. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
Which of these letters never begins a name on the Atlantic lists?Answer: Q. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone naming
Who sets the procedure for naming Atlantic tropical storms?Answer: An international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. Source: National Hurricane Center: Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names
Around the world and in history 16
A Cape Verde hurricane grows from a tropical wave that has left the coast of which continent?Answer: Africa. Source: Wikipedia: Cape Verde hurricane
A typhoon develops in the Northern Hemisphere between 100 degrees east and which other line of longitude?Answer: 180 degrees. Source: Wikipedia: Typhoon
Catarina, in 2004, was the first storm of hurricane strength on record in which ocean?Answer: The South Atlantic. Source: Wikipedia: Hurricane Catarina
In the Southern Hemisphere, the tropical cyclone seasons run from November 1 to the end of which month?Answer: April. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical cyclone
In the stories of the K'iche' Maya, Huracán is a god of what?Answer: Wind, storm and fire. Source: Wikipedia: Huracan
In which city is the Central Pacific Hurricane Center?Answer: Honolulu. Source: National Hurricane Center: Glossary of NHC Terms
In which city is the National Hurricane Center?Answer: Miami. Source: Wikipedia: National Hurricane Center
In which direction does a tropical wave move across the tropics?Answer: From east to west. Source: Wikipedia: Tropical wave
In which two years did the Mongol fleets that the storms scattered attack Japan?Answer: 1274 and 1281. Source: Wikipedia: Kamikaze (typhoon)
In which year did a pilot first fly into a hurricane on purpose?Answer: 1943. Source: Wikipedia: Hurricane hunters
The Japanese word kamikaze was first used of storms. What does it mean?Answer: Divine wind. Source: Wikipedia: Kamikaze (typhoon)
The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 brought its storm surge over which chain of low islands?Answer: The Florida Keys. Source: Wikipedia: 1935 Labor Day hurricane
Which nickname was given to the New England hurricane of 1938?Answer: The Long Island Express. Source: Wikipedia: 1938 New England hurricane
Which Texas city was flooded by the storm surge of the great hurricane of 1900?Answer: Galveston. Source: Wikipedia: 1900 Galveston hurricane
Who coined the word cyclone?Answer: Henry Piddington. Source: Wikipedia: Cyclone
The wreck of the ship Sea Venture is widely thought to have inspired which play by Shakespeare?Answer: The Tempest. Source: Wikipedia: Sea Venture
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, facts from the page named and linked beside it. Each answer was checked on 2026-10-02 against that page, fetched that day: four pages of the National Hurricane Center (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov, a United States government source: its glossary, its page on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, its naming history and its page of storm names) for most of the questions, and the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) for the rest. This site is not affiliated with the National Hurricane Center or any weather service. Science and dated history only: nothing here is a forecast, a warning or advice on what to do in a storm; for that, follow your local weather service. Left out on purpose: strongest, costliest and deadliest rankings, which a later season can change, and the death tolls of historic storms. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits a weather watcher, hard will stump most of them. Each round is stored easiest first, and each question carries the date its page was read. Licence: own work