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  • hurricane—(Many regional names.) A tropical cyclone with 1-min average surface (10 m) winds in excess of 32 m s−1 (64 knots) in the Western Hemisphere (North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern and central North Pacific east of the date line).
    The name is derived from “huracan,” a Taino and Carib god, or “hunraken,” the Mayan storm god. For a more complete discussion, see tropical cyclone.