Did you know that a cyclone and a hurricane are the same type of storm, with different names. In the Western Pacific, they are also called typhoons, and around Australia they are known as willy-willys.
What about tornadoes?
In terms of overall size, a tornado is much smaller storm system which meteorologists suspect evolve from the rotation of clouds associated with severe thunderstorms. While a hurricane can attain a diameter of 300 to 500-miles, a tornado is generally less than a mile in diameter. However, while the peak wind gust in a hurricane can reach perhaps 200 miles per hour (in the most extreme case), the most extreme tornado winds have been estimated to reach to over 300 miles per hour!
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Sandi Duncan is the Managing Editor of the Farmers' Almanac. 
If you notice a hole in the upper left-hand corner of your Farmers' Almanac, don't return it to the store! That hole isn't a defect; it's a part of history. Starting with the first edition of the Farmers' Almanac in 1818, readers used to nail holes into the corners to hang it up in their homes, barns, and outhouses (to provide both reading material and toilet paper). In 1910, the Almanac's publishers began pre-drilling holes in the corners to make it even easier for readers to keep all of that invaluable information (and paper) handy.
8 comments
i think if they cross the equator if there is storm in the equator it should die off since counter action is happening
when a tropical storm crosses the equator, will it change rotational direction from clockwise to counterclockwise, or vice-versa. i’ve always wondered that.
Yes . . . that is indeed true. When I stated that they are exactly the same I meant the same type of storm. But all pressure systems (HIGHs and LOWs) have circulations that rotate in the opposite directions south of the equator, compared to their northern hemisphere counterparts.
In regaurds to amh’s question, isn’t it true that cyclones south of the equator rotate counterclockwise and north of the equator rotate clockwise? You indicated the storms are exactly the same.
They are exactly the same type of storm . . . just different names. They form the same way . . . they reach maturity the same way . . . and when they move over land or into cooler waters, they die the same way.
So what distinguishes a hurricane from a cyclone or typhoon? These are the same type of storm, OK, but they are different from each other, yes? Not just different words for the same thing?
Good question.
A tornado is “fueled” by the clash of contrasting air masses: warm, moist air interacting with cool, dry air. Such clashes produce thunderstorms that can be severe and could lead to rotation that can ultimately spawn a tornado.
The tornadic winds will tend to diminish when there is no longer any significant contrast; usually when there is more cool/dry air infiltrating the thunderstorm and the warm/humid air is for lack of a better term, overwhelmed. With not much contrast, the storm’s strength ebbs and eventually it dies.
Interesting. But what fuels a tornado and what causes it to lose its strength?