What Is the Difference Between a

Cyclone, Typhoon, and Hurricane?

172.12K

Dennis Mersereau
08/07/14 03:43PM
Filed to: HURRICANES

One of the biggest sticking points when it comes to weather forecasts is the
public's confusion over the terms "hurricane," "typhoon," and "cyclone." Since
they're three different names, people think they're three different kinds of
storm. Here's a quick explainer on what's in a name.
Aside from slightly different wind speeds, there is no difference between a
hurricane, a typhoon, and a cyclone. They are all different names for the same
kind of intense low pressure system.

Most people are familiar with two different types of weather systems:

Low pressure systems, also called "cyclones," spin counter-clockwise in

the northern hemisphere
High pressure systems, also called "anticyclones," spin clockwise in the
northern hemisphere.

All low pressure systems are cyclones. There are two different kinds of
cyclones that affect the United States most often: tropical cyclones and
extratropical cyclones.

Tropical Cyclones

A tropical cyclone is a warm-core system that has a warm, humid, tropical

airmass throughout the entire storm. Tropical cyclones derive their energy
from the intense thunderstorm activity that forms around the eye of the
storm. This explainer from Hurricane Bertha's early days gives a little more
information on how a tropical cyclone ultimately becomes a tropical cyclone.

Tropical cyclones most often take on the appearance of a tight, spiraling mass
of clouds...or a big white bagel.

Extratropical Cyclones

An extratropical cyclone, on the other hand, features a process called

"temperature advection." Think of cold and warm fronts extratropical
cyclones typically transport warm air from the south and cold air down from
the northwest. Extratropical cyclones also gather their energy from the jet
stream in a process called "divergence." Air has a tendency to rise rapidly near
different parts of the jet stream, and these regions favor the formation and
strengthening of extratropical cyclones.

Ideal extratropical cyclones famously look like giant white apostrophes

hovering over land. The one pictured above was the "Chiclone" of October
2010, which wound up being one of the most intense extratropical cyclones
ever recorded in the United States (its pressure dropped to near 955
millibars).
Now that we've established that all low pressure systems are cyclones, we can
look at what different regions of the world call ones that are tropical in nature.

The embarrassingly-bad map above shows the very rough cutoff points for
different names. Around North America, we call tropical cyclones
"hurricanes." In the western Pacific near Asia, they call tropical cyclones
"typhoons." In most of the southern hemisphere and the Indian Ocean, they
simply call tropical cyclones a "tropical cyclone."

Keep in mind that a hurricane/typhoon/cyclone generally has winds stronger

than 74 MPH. Anything lower than that and it's a buffet of different names. In
North America, we call a tropical cyclone with winds less than 39 MPH a
"tropical depression." Once the tropical cyclone strengthens and has winds
between 39 and 73 MPH, we call it a "tropical storm."

The threshold for naming a system a depression/storm/etc. differs from

region to region, but again: same storm, different names.

The dividing line for whether a tropical cyclone is called a hurricane, typhoon,
or simply a cyclone is based on latitude and longitude. A perfect example is
Hurricane Genevieve. The other day, Hurricane Genevieve crossed the
International Date Line (180W) from American forecasting territory into
Japanese forecasting territory. Once it crossed that line, it went from
Hurricane Genevieve to Super Typhoon Genevieve simply because it crossed
from one region into the other. Same storm, different name.
There are seven official forecasting agencies around the world responsible for
issuing forecasts on tropical systems, and each can declare individual storms a
hurricane/cyclone/typhoon.

1. Americans are most familiar with the National Hurricane

Centerbased out of Miami, which is responsible for hurricanes that
form in the northern Atlantic and eastern Pacific east of 140W
longitude.
2. If a storm forms in the eastern Pacific and crosses 140W into the
central Pacific, it becomes the responsibility of the Central Pacific
Hurricane Center in Honolulu. This agency is responsible for all
tropical systems in the northern hemisphere that form between 140W
and the International Date Line (180W).
3. If a storm like Genevieve forms in the CPHC's area of responsibility and
moves west over the International Date Line, it becomes the
responsibility of Japanese Meteorological Agency, which is
responsible for all tropical systems that form in the northwestern Pacific
Ocean. They call tropical cyclones "typhoons."
4. Around Australia, storms that form are simply called "tropical cyclones"
and they're the responsibility of the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology.
5. In the northern Indian Ocean, tropical cyclones that form are the
responsibility of the India Meteorological Department.
6. If a tropical cyclone forms in the southwestern Indian Ocean around
Madagascar, for instance Mto-France is responsible for issuing
forecasts.
7. Lastly, cyclones that form in the southern Pacific Ocean are under the
responsibility of New Zealand's MetService.

In the southern Atlantic Ocean south of the equator, the responsibility for
issuing forecasts on tropical cyclones is theoretically no man's land since
tropical cyclones are exceedingly rare in the region. In practice, though, the
one time a category 2 tropical cyclone hit Brazil in March 2004, Brazilian
authorities took forecasting responsibility and named the storm Catarina.

To keep a long story short (ha ha ha!), there is basically no difference between
a hurricane, a typhoon, and a tropical cyclone. It's the difference between a
tractor trailer and a lorry. The spelling of "harbor" and "harbour."
Pronouncing tomato "tomato" or pronouncing tomato "tomato."

Hurricane, typhoon, cyclone. They're all the same type of storm, just called
different names.
[Images: NOAA / GOES / NASA / author]