Where you live determines which term you use.
Is a storm just a storm? Yes, a hurricane is a typhoon, which is a cyclone, but not a bomb cyclone. What’s the difference between typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones?
Their names, which vary by origin. Hurricanes occur over the North Atlantic or central or eastern North Pacific oceans in Florida, the Caribbean, Texas, and Hawaii. forming over the western North Pacific in East Asian countries like Japan and Korea? A “typhoon.” In other places, like the Indian Ocean, hurricanes and typhoons are called “cyclones.”
What is a tropical cyclone?
NOAA describes cyclones as “rotating” and “organised” clouds and thunderstorms over tropical or semitropical waters. (Northern hemisphere) It starts as a “tropical depression.” It becomes a “tropical storm” when its winds reach 39 mph. When sustained winds reach 74 mph, the storm “matures” into a hurricane, typhoon, or intensified tropical cyclone.
What distinguishes hurricanes from typhoons?
What’s the difference between hurricanes and typhoons? Hurricanes occur in the North Atlantic or central/eastern North Pacific, while typhoons are in the western North Pacific and East Asia. Who factors that intensity depends on who’s factoring. The Saffir-Simpson Scale rates hurricanes in the US from 1 to 5 based on maximum wind speed: Category 1 has winds between 74 and 95 miles per hour; Category 2, between 96 and 110 mph; Category 3, between 111 and 129 mph; Category 4, between 130 and 156 mph; and Category 5, 157 mph and above. However, the World Meteorological Organization classifies strong, very strong, and violent typhoons as Class 5 with wind speeds between 74 and 119 mph.
What’s the difference between a hurricane and a cyclone?
Cyclones and hurricanes differ, just like typhoons and hurricanes. National Geographic defines hurricanes as “when they develop over the North Atlantic, central North Pacific and eastern North Pacific.” Cyclones are rotating storms that form “over the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.” Storm peaks vary by season. Cyclone season peaks between May and November, while hurricane season runs from mid-August to late October. However, they both cause havoc wherever they go.
Why are the names different?
Cyclone is the generic term meteorologists use for these storms. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates its use to 1848, when it was likely used to describe an intense storm over India in 1789. It comes from the Greek word kyklon, “moving in a circle, whirling around.” The Spanish word for hurricane, huracán, was brought to the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. “‘Typhoon’ entered the English language when explorers interacted with residents of southwest and southern Asia [and] comes from tufan, which means ‘big cyclonic storm’ in Arabic, Persian, and Hindi,” Gawker reported.
No matter what you call them, these intense storms bring strong winds, lots of rain, and flooding. A recent study found that the largest and most intense cyclones (or hurricanes or typhoons) are becoming more likely due to climate change in any region that experiences them. We’re in for a wild future whether we call them typhoons, hurricanes, or cyclones.
Info source – Reader’s Digest