Hurricane, Tornado, Cyclone – What’s the Difference?

What is the difference between a tornado and a hurricane? And what about typhoon? First, let’s get it straight: all these weather phenomena have to do with strong winds. Not my-umbrella-got-torn-from-my-hands strong, mind you, but rather my-house-got-blown-away-to-the-Land-of-Oz kind of thing. Yet before we get to the actual difference between hurricanes and typhoons, we must understand that they’re one and the same thing called a tropical cyclone.
If you live in moderate or colder climates, there’s nothing for you to worry about, even if your house is right by the seaside, because you’ll only hear about cyclones from the news. After all, they’re called tropical for a reason: they only form in tropical or subtropical areas, because they need warm water to get things going.
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TIMESTAMPS:
Why a tropical cyclone is dangerous 0:40
A tropical depression 1:47
A tropical storm 2:29
Hurricane or typhoon? 2:50
But what about tornadoes? 3:50
The safest place of a tornado 5:12
How powerful a hurricane could be:
- Category 1 6:35
- Category 2 7:02
- Category 3 7:24
- Category 4 7:53
- Category 5 8:26
#Hurricane #Tornado #brightside
SUMMARY:
- A tropical cyclone is a huge mass of clouds that gather in the sky and start rotating counter clock-wise due to very low air pressure.
- Cyclones occur much more often than you think! But only few of them grow large and strong enough to become hurricanes or typhoons.
- The weakest version of a tropical cyclone is called a tropical depression. It’s a similar swirling mass of clouds, usually accompanied by storms, but the force of winds in it is not very high.
- When the winds are stronger than 39 mph, the cyclone is then called a tropical storm. This is a more serious threat, and you’ll do well to hide inside your house because gusts of wind might reach 72 mph.
- And only if the wind gets even more powerful than that, then it can be called a hurricane or a typhoon.
- If a severe tropical cyclone with wind speeds of over 75 mph occurs in the North Atlantic or North-East Pacific, it’s called a hurricane. If it’s in the North-West Pacific, then it’s a typhoon.
- We hear more about hurricanes than typhoons because the Atlantic Ocean is warmer than the Pacific, and warm water acts like a fuel for cyclones.
- Tornadoes can form almost anywhere they please, both over sea and over land. But there’s much more to it than that.
- A tornado is a swirling funnel of air coming down from the sky. It appears during thunderstorms, and it’s rather a consequence than a reason for severe weather.
- But despite its terrible power, a tornado is a very local event, and short-lived at that. The biggest one ever registered by scientists was just over 1.5 mi in diameter and lasted about an hour or so.
- The center, in its turn, is usually calm and windless — so calm, in fact, that it’s almost creepy. It’s called the eye of the tornado or the hurricane, and it’s basically the safest place to be when the phenomenon comes to you.
- There are 5 categories of hurricanes according to the National Weather Service. Category 1 is just slightly more intense than a tropical storm, and in some countries it’s still considered as such.
- Category 2 is another story altogether. The wind blows at speeds of up to 109 mph, and that’s where the real trouble starts.
- When a hurricane grows to Category 3, it’s already a disaster. First of all, it’s big. Secondly, it’s powerful. The winds are reaching 129 mph, and catching such a gust is like being hit with a race car.
- A Category 4 major hurricane is something you don’t want to see with your own eyes. With gusts of wind up to 157 mph, it can tear trees from the ground and hurl fairly large objects in the air, causing lots of damage.
- And finally, a Category 5 major hurricane is a thing to be avoided at all costs. In other classifications it’s even called a super typhoon or a super cyclonic storm, which says a lot.
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