Explain how a hurricane develops, travels, maintains/grows in intensity, and differs from a typhoon.

Hurricanes are the largest and most violent storms on Earth. People call these storms with different names like typhoons or cyclones depending on where they occur. The scientific term for all these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific Ocean are called "hurricanes."

Explanation:

However they are called, all tropical cyclones are formed in the same way.

Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, humid air as fuel. That is why they are formed only on oceans of warm water, near the equator. Warm and humid air over the oceans rises from near the surface. As the air moves up and away from the surface, less air remains near the surface. Another way of saying the same thing is that warm air rises causing an area of lower air pressure near the ocean.

The air with higher pressure from the surrounding areas fills the low pressure area. Then, this "new" air becomes warm and humid and also rises. As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air rotates to take its place. When warm and humid air rises and cools, water in the air forms clouds. The entire cloud and air system spins and grows, fueled by the heat of the ocean and the water that evaporates from the surface.

The storms that form north of the equator turn counterclockwise. The storms to the south of the equator, turn clockwise. This difference is because the Earth rotates on its axis.

As the storm system turns faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. In the eye everything is very calm and clear, with a very low air pressure. The upper high pressure air falls into the eye.

When the winds in the rotating storm reach 39 mph, the storm is called "tropical storm." And when they reach 74 mph, the storm is officially considered a "tropical cyclone," or hurricane.

Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they touch land, because they can no longer "feed" on energy from temperate oceans. However, they often advance a lot inland causing much damage from rain and wind before disappearing completely.