Met Mailbag is your chance to have a Weather Plus Meteorologist answer your weather question. Each Thursday, our NBC Weather Pulse Blog will publish the answers to questions you send us. This week's questions were answered by NBC Weather Plus Meteorologist Kristen Cornett.

Question: What is the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane?
Submitted by Britta Pressler, Eau Claire, Wis.

Answer: Thanks for the question, Britta.

There isn't much difference at all! Once a tropical cyclone reaches winds of 74mph, they become either a hurricane or typhoon. The terms are simply regionally specific.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline and the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E we call them "hurricanes."

In the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline, they are called "typhoons."

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