When a hurricane's steering winds collapse, the storm can sit in place for days, turning a wind event into a flood catastrophe. Here's why it happens.

Toilets don't flush counterclockwise in one hemisphere and clockwise in the other. What actually decides the swirl is jet angle and bowl geometry, not planetary rotation.

The number the National Hurricane Center assigns a storm measures wind, and only wind. History's deadliest hurricanes prove that isn't the same as knowing how dangerous one will be.

Category number measures wind. It says nothing about how long a hurricane plans to sit still, and stalling is often what turns a storm catastrophic.