Hurricanes
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98 free Hurricanes trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
10 free hurricanes trivia questions with answers. Think you know everything about hurricanes? Challenge yourself with our hurricane trivia quiz featuring five questions about these powerful natural disasters. From wind speeds to formation zones, discover how much you really know about tropical cyclones.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the primary energy source for hurricanes?
Warm ocean water
A hurricane is a giant heat engine: warm water evaporates, rises, condenses into cloud and rain, and releases latent heat that drives the storm.
Q 02Which five-category scale rates hurricanes by sustained wind speed?
Saffir-Simpson scale
Saffir-Simpson scale categories run 1 to 5 on sustained wind alone, each a rough guide to the damage a storm can do.
Q 03In which ocean basin does a hurricane-strength storm go by the name typhoon?
Northwest Pacific
Northwest Pacific storms are typhoons; the same storm is a hurricane in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific, and simply a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean.
Q 04What is the calmest part of a hurricane?
The eye
The eye is typically 30 to 65 kilometres across, with light winds, sinking air and the lowest pressure anywhere in the storm.
Q 05What rise in sea level, pushed ashore by a cyclone, has caused 90% of cyclone deaths?
Storm surge
Storm surge's record is 13 metres, produced by Cyclone Mahina at Bathurst Bay in Queensland in March 1899.
Q 06What minimum sustained wind speed does a storm need to be rated Category 5?
157 mph
Category 5 begins at sustained winds of 157 mph (137 knots), the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale; the 2012 revision moved the threshold up from 156 mph to fix a rounding mismatch with knots.
Q 07What minimum sustained wind speed makes a tropical cyclone a hurricane?
74 mph
A tropical cyclone becomes a hurricane at sustained winds of 74 mph (64 knots), measured 10 metres above the surface; below that it is a tropical storm or a depression.
Q 08In the Northern Hemisphere, which way do a hurricane's surface winds circulate?
Counterclockwise
Northern Hemisphere hurricanes spin counterclockwise because the Coriolis effect deflects inflowing air to the right; Southern Hemisphere cyclones spin clockwise for the same reason.
Q 09On what date does the Atlantic hurricane season officially close?
30 November
The Atlantic hurricane season officially closes on 30 November; storms occasionally form outside the window, such as Hurricane Alex, which became a hurricane in January 2016.
Q 10What ring of towering thunderstorms around a cyclone's eye carries its worst weather?
The eyewall
The eyewall's worst weather and highest winds sit right next to the light winds and clear skies of the eye.
Q 11Which 2015 hurricane set the tropical-cyclone record for sustained winds at 215 mph?
Hurricane Patricia
Hurricane Patricia's 215 mph made it the most intense cyclone ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.
Q 12Roughly what sea surface temperature is generally required for a tropical cyclone to develop?
27 °C (81 °F)
Tropical cyclones generally need sea surface temperatures of about 27 °C (81 °F), usually quoted as 26.5 °C, through a layer at least 50 metres deep to supply enough heat and moisture.
Q 13On average, how many tropical cyclones of at least tropical-storm strength form worldwide each year?
About 86
Q 21Hagibis in October 2019 became the costliest typhoon on record for which country?
Japan
Hagibis hit Honshu on 12 October 2019 with record rainfall, causing about $17 billion in damage, Japan's costliest typhoon, and forced the cancellation of three Rugby World Cup pool matches.
Q 22Hurricane Harvey set the US rainfall record of 60.58 inches in 2017 in which state?
Texas
Texas took Harvey's 60.58 inches at Nederland, near Port Arthur, the most rain measured from one tropical cyclone in US history, as the storm stalled over the Houston area for days in August 2017.
Q 23In March 2004, Hurricane Catarina, the first hurricane on record in the South Atlantic, struck which country?
Brazil
About 86 tropical cyclones reach tropical-storm strength worldwide in an average year; roughly 47 of them reach hurricane strength and about 20 become major storms of Category 3 or higher.
Q 14When Hurricane Genevieve crossed the International Dateline westward in 2014, what did it become?
A typhoon
Genevieve became Typhoon Genevieve on crossing 180° into the Western Pacific basin, handed from US forecasters in Honolulu to that basin's own warning centre; the storm itself did not change, only its label.
Q 15Which Queensland meteorologist first gave storms personal names, between 1887 and 1907?
Clement Wragge
Clement Wragge, Queensland's government meteorologist, named storms from 1887 to 1907, famously after politicians he disliked; systematic naming only returned with US military forecasters during World War II.
Q 16The rotating Atlantic hurricane name lists skip which letters?
Q, U, X, Y and Z
The Atlantic lists skip Q, U, X, Y and Z because too few common names start with them, leaving 21 names per list; since 2021 overflow storms take names from a supplemental list instead of Greek letters.
Q 17How many rotating name lists does the WMO Hurricane Committee keep for the Atlantic?
Six
Six lists of 21 names each, coming back around every six years unless a name is retired.
Q 18In which country did Cyclone Idai make landfall in March 2019?
Mozambique
Cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira, Mozambique, on 15 March 2019 with winds near 105 mph, killing more than 600 people in Mozambique alone and over 1,300 across southern Africa.
Q 19Cyclone Hyacinthe dropped a record 6,083 mm of rain over 15 days in January 1980 on which island?
Réunion
Hyacinthe stalled over Réunion, where the Commerson crater gauge collected 6,083 mm (about 240 inches) across 15 days in January 1980, setting the world record for rainfall from a single tropical cyclone.
Q 20The deadliest tropical cyclone on record killed 300,000-plus in 1970 in which present-day country?
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, lost an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people when the Bhola cyclone's surge swept the Ganges delta on 12-13 November 1970; the slow relief response fed the 1971 independence war.
Catarina came ashore in Brazil's Santa Catarina state on 28 March 2004 with Category 2 winds; the South Atlantic has no official WMO naming body because such storms are so rare.
Q 24Which 2005 Atlantic storm made landfall in Spain as a tropical depression?
Vince
Vince made landfall near Huelva, Spain, on 11 October 2005 as a tropical depression, the first tropical cyclone recorded striking the Iberian Peninsula; two days earlier it had briefly been a hurricane near Madeira.
Q 25Hurricane Ivan in 2004 spawned about how many tornadoes across the eastern United States?
120
Ivan spawned about 120 tornadoes over the eastern United States in September 2004, a record for one tropical cyclone at the time; landfalling storms spin up twisters in their outer rainbands.
Q 26Which 2008 storm set the record for the smallest tropical cyclone, only 37 km across?
Marco
Tropical Storm Marco formed in the Bay of Campeche in October 2008 with tropical-storm-force winds reaching only 19 km from its centre, a 37 km span; Typhoon Tip's 1979 gale field reached about 2,200 km.
Q 27'Rapid intensification' means a cyclone's maximum sustained winds rise by at least how much in 24 hours?
35 mph
Rapid intensification is a rise of at least 35 mph (30 knots) in maximum sustained winds within 24 hours; Wilma in October 2005 went from tropical storm to Category 5 in about a day.
Q 28Katrina's 1,392 deaths made it the deadliest US hurricane since which 1928 disaster?
The Okeechobee storm
Most of Katrina's deaths came from flooding after the federally built levees around New Orleans failed.
Q 29Katrina jumped from Category 3 to 5 in nine hours over the warm waters of which Gulf of Mexico feature?
The Loop Current
The Loop Current carries deep warm Caribbean water into the Gulf, and Katrina crossed it to peak at 175 mph with a 902 mbar central pressure on 28 August 2005.
Q 30Along with Andrew, Michael and the 1935 Labor Day storm, which hurricane hit the continental US at Category 5?
Camille (1969)
Camille struck the Mississippi coast on 17 August 1969 with winds estimated near 175 mph and a storm surge of more than 24 feet, a Category 5 landfall.