We often speak of the sign of Jesus' presence as recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 asbeing wars, food shortages, pestilance, and earthquakes. However a careful look at the Greek word seismos commonly rendered "earthquakes" in these scriptures reveals that this can include other natural disasters such as hurricanes.
Strong's Concordance and Lexicon provides the following definition for Seismos: "a commotion, i.e. (of the air) a gale, (of the ground) an earthquake—earthquake, tempest"
So while this word can mean earthquake it can also mean wind storm. It is used this way in Matthew 8:24 to describe the great tempest at sea that Jesus calmed. (The parallel account at Mark 4:37 describes it as a "great violent windstorm")
Knowing this can help us effectively keep watch as things happen around us.
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As a side point, recently a link has been discovered between hurricane activity and earthquakes. Physicist Randall Peters of Mercer University in Macon Georgia has shown that wind storms can trigger seismic activity and weak earthquake swarms. Earth Trembles As Big Winds Move In - New Scientist; July 1, 2005.
