• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Hurricanes, Typhoons, And Cyclones: How To Tell The Difference

March 6, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons are all types of tropical storms capable of stirring up significant destruction and loss of human life. Despite their differing names, however, there’s actually very little difference between them.

What’s the difference between hurricanes and typhoons?

The only difference between a hurricane, a typhoon, and a cyclone is where in the world the storm occurs:

Advertisement

It’s called a hurricane if it’s in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, or eastern North Pacific oceans.

It’s called a typhoon if occurs over the Northwest Pacific Ocean to the east of Asia,

Meanwhile, it’s called a cyclone if it occurs in the Indian Ocean and parts of the South Pacific. 

There’s no clear reason why we still stick to this system other than paying homage to the regions of the world where the word emerged. 

Advertisement

The word hurricane stems from the Spanish word huracán, which relates to the Maya god of wind, storm, and fire called Huracan. The earliest written use of the term dates to around the mid-16th century by Spanish colonialists sailing to the Americas. 

The origin of the word typhoon isn’t totally clear, but it’s thought to have ties to the word tufan, which appears in Greek, Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi, meaning something like “big cyclonic storm.”

Map showing how hurricanes and typhoons get their names

Depending on where they occur, tropical cyclones have different names. Image credit: UK MetOffice

Generally speaking, we can refer to all three as tropical cyclones. 

A tropical cyclone can is defined as a rapidly rotating storm with a low-pressure center and clouds spiraling towards the eyewall surrounding the “eye,” according to the World Meteorological Organization. As a result of Earth’s rotation, the winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Advertisement

This swirling mass of violent wind can be vast, with its diameter typically spanning 200 to 500 kilometers (124 to 310 miles), but capable of reaching up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). It’s defined as a tropical depression when the maximum sustained wind speed is less than 63 kilometers (39 miles) per hour. Once it gathers a maximum sustained wind speed that’s faster than this, it can be defined as a tropical cyclone.

Why do we name hurricanes?

Regardless of whether you’re dealing with a hurricane, cyclone, or typhoon, they will often be given a name if they reach a certain strength, scale, and potential for destruction. These names are generally assigned to them from predetermined lists, depending on the basin in which they originate.

For hurricanes, these names tend to be human names. In 2023, for instance, they will be named Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, and so on. 

The purpose of the naming system, which was first rolled out in the 1950s, is to streamline communication about the storms. After all, people are more likely to acknowledge and remember a storm with a personable name, rather than just a list of digits or a date. 

Advertisement

The names of the deadliest storms, such as Hurricane Katrina, are retired as a mark of respect for the devastation and loss they caused. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Czech president Zeman taken to hospital, waves to camera – media
  2. Alibaba apps start offering WeChat Pay option after government orders
  3. Apple asks judge to pause Epic Games antitrust orders as it appeals ruling
  4. Green Light May Reduce Pain By Activating Opioid Receptors In The Brain

Source Link: Hurricanes, Typhoons, And Cyclones: How To Tell The Difference

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Impact That Made Meteor Crater May Have Triggered Giant Grand Canyon Landslide
  • Get Ready, Skywatchers: A “Dazzling” Total Lunar Eclipse Is Coming In 2025
  • How A Man Won The Lottery 14 Times Using Unbelievably Basic Math
  • What Are The Amazon’s “Flying Rivers”? And Why Every Single One Of Us Relies On Them
  • Curious New Microbe With Tiny Genome Toes The Line Between Cell And Virus
  • We’ve Just Found Out Where The World’s Longest-Living Vertebrate Has Its Babies
  • For The First Time, An Animal Has Been Shown Responding To Plant-Produced Sounds
  • Deep Ocean Currents Have “Weather” And Seasonal Changes That We’re Only Just Learning About
  • Stratus: What Are The Symptoms Of The Latest COVID-19 Subvariant To Spread Around The World?
  • In 1927, Henry Ford Tried To Build A Town In The Amazon And Things Went Very, Very Badly
  • Human Botfly: Say Hello To The Parasite That Would Love To Get Under Your Skin
  • Is The Weather Making Your Headache Worse?
  • “Zoning Out” Actually Helps You Learn? Data From Up To 90,000 Brain Cells Says So
  • Over Past 250,000 Years, Three Major Waves Of Human-Neanderthal Interbreeding Have Been Identified
  • Zebrafish “Catch” Yawns Just Like Us – We Might Need To Rethink Evolution To Account For That
  • 80,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Footprints Reveal How Children Hunted On Beaches
  • 5 Animals That Have Absolutely No Business Jumping (In Our Very Humble, Definitely Unbiased Opinion)
  • Polar Vortex Patterns Explain Winter Cold Snaps Against Background Warming Trend
  • Scientists Tracked An Olm For 2,569 Days And It Did Not Move An Inch
  • Look Out For “Fireballs”: The Best Meteor Shower Of 2025 Is About To Commence, According To NASA
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version