What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?
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Hurricanes are in the Atlantic ocean and Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, Typhoons in the pacific, cyclones in the Indian ocean. \n\nIn general they are the same thing. Hurricanes spin counter clockwise. There are minor differences in how the strength and wind speed of these storms are catagorized. For example wind speed in hurricanes is 10 minute sustained winds while typhoons it is only 1 minute. So Typhoons may appear to have stronger wind speeds than their Atlantic relitives. There are minor differences in the wind speed catagories of hurricanes and Typhoons. Both get different sets of names as well. For all functional purposes it is only a regional name for the same kind of storm. \n\nI could swear I read somewhere that Typhoons and or cyclones south of the equator spun clockwise but cannot verify this.
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They are usually referred to as cyclones or tropical cyclones. A less official term also used is willy-willy.
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Actually, cyclones ARE another name for hurricanes - I post this directly, not changing the context one bit.\n\nIn meteorology, a cyclone is the rotation of a volume of air about an area of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are responsible for a wide variety of different meteorological phenomena such as tropical cyclones and tornadoes. Because of this, most weather forecasters avoid using the term cyclone without a qualifying term.\n\nTropical cyclones (also known as tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons) are cyclones which form over warm (generally tropical) ocean waters and draw their energy from evaporation and condensation. They are characterized by a strong area of low pressure at the surface and an area of higher pressure aloft. Tropical cyclones are associated with strong thunderstorms, high winds, and flooding.\n\nIn North America, tornadoes are sometimes described as cyclones because they involve powerful winds around a low-pressure vortex. However, they differ from other cyclones by their very local nature; most cyclones are massive storms, while tornados are comparatively small but extremely powerful. Tornadoes occur on too local a scale for the Coriolis effect to determine the direction of rotation; for this reason tornado winds sometimes flow anticyclonically, or opposite the direction dictated by the Coriolis effect.
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Same exact thing. Hurricane is the name in the western hemisphere. Typhoon is the name in the Eastern Hemi.
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A cyclone happens south of the equator and goes in the exact opposite direction as a hurricane . The principle works the sme as if you flush a toilet ... in Australia the water goes in the opposite direction . So therefore do the winds of a cyclone as opposed to a hurricane .\n\nThere is a word for this , I forget what it is called ...
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Extratropical cyclones- storms that have frontal interactions, sometimes called midlatitude cyclones\nTropical cyclones- hurricanes, tropical storms; these have no frontal zones and are usually found in "source regions" during tropical season.\nCyclones and disturbances are not limited to the surface and can occur at any level in the atmosphere.
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The F scale to which you're refering is for tornado's, not hurricanes. Although hurricanes are by catagory 1-5. The F is for the initial for the Japanese scientist who created the "Fujita" scale, for damage done by tornado's. F1 being the slowest wind speed, doing the least amount of damage, F5 being the fastest wind speed, therefore doing the most damage.
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A hurricane begins when a warm, wet mass of air over the sea begins to rise quickly. Then combined actions of air, water and heat may then produce a huge, spinning system of clouds, rain and wind- a hurricane. The center, or eye, of a hurricane is calm. It is a hole in a dough-nut of wind. \nA hurricane usually lasts 9-12 days. It forms and builds strength over warm sea water. It loses energy as it moves over cooler sea water or land.
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All you need to know about cyclones\n\nYour continued donations keep Wikipedia running!    \nCyclone\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\n(Redirected from Cyclones)\nJump to: navigation, search\nThis article is about the meteorological phenomenon. For other uses of the term see Cyclone (disambiguation). \n \nA tropical cyclone in the northern hemisphere.In meteorology, a cyclone is the rotation of a volume of air about an area of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are responsible for a wide variety of different meteorological phenomena such as tropical cyclones and tornadoes. Because of this, most weather forecasters avoid using the term cyclone without a qualifying term.\n\nContents [hide]\n1 Structure \n2 Types of Cyclones \n2.1 Tropical cyclones \n2.2 Extratropical cyclones \n2.3 Subtropical cyclones \n2.4 Mid-latitude cyclones \n2.5 Polar low \n2.6 Arctic cyclone \n2.7 Mesocyclones \n2.8 Tornadoes \n2.9 Martian cyclones \n3 Derivation of the term \n4 Cyclone as metaphor \n5 See also \n6 External links \n \n\n\n[edit]\nStructure\nThe center of a cyclone is a low-pressure region. Near the center of the cyclone the pressure gradient force, from high- to low-pressure regions, and the Coriolis force must be in an approximate balance (or else the cyclone would collapse in on itself under the pressure gradient). The wind flow around a large cyclone is anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, due to the Coriolis effect. Large anticyclonic storms are extremely rare on Earth, though Jupiter's Great Red Spot storm is anticyclonic.\n\n[edit]\nTypes of Cyclones\n[edit]\nTropical cyclones\nMain article: Tropical cyclone \n \nTropical cyclone off the Indian coast.Tropical cyclones (also known as tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons) are cyclones which form over warm (generally tropical) ocean waters and draw their energy from evaporation and condensation. They are characterized by a strong area of low pressure at the surface and an area of higher pressure aloft. Tropical cyclones are associated with strong thunderstorms, high winds, and flooding.\n\n[edit]\nExtratropical cyclones\nMain article: Extratropical cyclone \nExtratropical cyclones (or low-pressure cells) lie somewhere in between tropical cyclones and mid-latitude cyclones, drawing a portion of their energy through the evaporation and condensation of ocean water, and some through horizontal temperature gradients in the atmosphere. They move out of the tropical regions towards the polar regions, bringing precipitation in the form of rain or drizzle. They often form quickly along cold fronts that have stagnated after moving into an area where warm, moist air exists. The warm, moist air is less dense, therefore it overruns the more dense cold air at and behind the cold front. A cyclonic motion is imparted to the ascending air, naturally, forming a shallow cyclone. Extratropical cyclones are also formed from tropical cyclones when they move into non-tropical regions and lose tropical characteristics.\n\n[edit]\nSubtropical cyclones\nMain article: Subtropical cyclone \nA subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of a tropical cyclone and some characteristics of an extratropical cyclone. They can form in a wide band of latitude, from the equator to 50°.\n\n[edit]\nMid-latitude cyclones\nMain article: Mid-latitude cyclone \nMid-latitude cyclones are generated by the temperature difference between warm and cold air masses, with warm water at high latitudes generally providing that differential. These storms have a cold core, unlike tropical and extratropical cyclones. Similar storms may appear at very high latitudes: these very cold storms are called subarctic (or subantarctic) cyclones.\n\n \nA large low pressure area swirls off the southeastern coast of Iceland.[edit]\nPolar low\nMain article: Polar low \nPolar lows are similar in behavior and size to tropical cyclones, although generally much shorter l
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Hurricanes are intense low pressure  areas that form over warm ocean waters in the summer and early fall. Their source of energy is water vapor  which is evaporated from the ocean surface. Water vapor is the "fuel" for the hurricanes because it releases the "latent heat of condensation" when it condenses to form clouds and rain, warming the surrounding air. (This heat energy was absorbed by the water vapor when it was evaporated from the warm ocean surface, cooling the ocean in the process.) Usually, the heat released in this way in tropical thunderstorms is carried away by wind shear, which blows the top off the thunderstorms. But when there is little wind shear, this heat can build up, causing low pressure to form. The low pressure causes wind to begin to spiral inward toward the center of the low. These winds help to evaporate even more water vapor from the ocean, spiraling inward toward the center, feeding more showers and thunderstorms, and warming the upper atmosphere still more. The showers and thunderstorms where all of this energy is released are usually organized into bands (sometimes called "rainbands" or "feeder bands"), as well as into an "eyewall" encircling the center of the storm. The eyewall is where the strongest winds occur, which encircle the warmest air, in the eye of the hurricane. This warmth in the eye is produced by sinking air, which sinks in response to rising air in the thunderstorms. The winds diminish rapidly moving from the eyewall to the inside of the relatively cloud-free eye, where calm winds can exist.\nhurricane eyes seen from the Space Shuttle and from aircraft\nHurricane intensity is based upon the highest sustained (1 minute average) wind speed the hurricane is producing. The "Saffir-Simpson" scale rates hurricane strength in this way from Category 1 to Category 5. These categories were chosen based upon the amount of damage that each category can produce.\nIntensity Wind Speed Damage\nCategory 1 74- 95 mph MINIMAL: tree branches, shrubs, unanchored mobile homes\nCategory 2 96-110 mph MODERATE: mobile homes, poorly constructed buildings, some trees down\nCategory 3 111-130 mph EXTENSIVE: small buildings damaged, large trees down, mobile homes destroyed\nCategory 4 131-155 mph EXTREME: outer walls damaged, roof failure on small buildings, extensive damage to doors and windows, mobile homes destroyed\nCategory 5 >155 mph CATASTROPHIC: complete roof failure on many buildings, some buildings destroyed, severe window and door damage, mobile homes destroyed\nIn low-lying areas, much of the damage from hurricanes can be from the "storm surge", in which water being blown onshore by the high winds rises rapidly. The storm surge can destroy the lower floors of some buildings, or even destroy the foundations of residences causing the homes to wash away. The storm surge can also trap residents from evacuating along low-lying escape routes.\n\nHurricanes almost always travel poleward at the end of their life cycle, helping to transport excess heat out of the tropics toward higher latitudes. They gradually die as they move over cooler waters, which do not have the heat energy necessary to evaporate sufficent water vapor into the atmosphere to fuel the hurricane. If the hurricane crosses over to land, the heat source is removed entirely. With the removal of the energy source, and the greater surface friction of the land's terrain and vegetation, the hurricane's winds rapidly decrease.
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Warm ocean water and warm air over the ocean are the source of a hurricane's energy. The warmer the water the stronger a hurricane can be. The water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting much warmer in the last few years, and Hurricane Katrina and the others last summer were a result of that.
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Hurricane - Large tropical weather system with intense low pressure at the center, resulting in strong winds.  Can also have incredible amounts of rain.  Can be hundreds of miles wide.  Forms over warm water, dies over land.  Forms in the Atlantic Ocean basin.\n\nTyphoon - Same as a hurricane, except in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.\n\nTornado - A formation within a single severe thunderstorm.  Rapidly rotating column of air with even more intense low pressure at the center.  Only a mile or so wide at the most severe, usually much narrower.  Probably occurs almost exclusively over land and small bodies of water (said because no evidence is left by a tornado over water, and there is rarely anyone in the middle of a large body of water close enough to a storm to see a tornado).
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There's no discernable relationship with the occurence of Katrina - hurricane formation is far more complex than just temperature, and depends much more on local weather conditions.  Hurricanes are powered by warm water, so warming conditions will tend to make storms stronger however, which some see as part of the reason we've had so many strong storms this past year.
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The difference is where they happen.  The storms are called hurricanes in the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific.  They are called typhoons in the western Pacific, and they are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean, but the physics of the storms are the same.  I believe the direction of rotation may be different, depending on whether they are in the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere.\n\nA hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone is any mass of air that spirals around a low pressure center. It is an organized collection of thunderstorms embedded in a swirling mass of air.\n\nAt the center of the spiral is the eye, a vertical tube of clear skies and calm winds; the more intense the storm, the smaller the eye.\n\nAlthough the main upwards flow of air is around the eye, the entire air mass is unstable. Spiraling rows of thunderstorms with relatively clear areas between them extend outwards for up to two thousand miles from the center, gradually diminishing in intensity.
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A hurricane feeds off the heat of the water beneath it. I've been in one - a small one! The difference in temperature between the cold rain and warm water in the waves is amazing. It's this difference in temperature that makes the hurricane stronger. Global warming would make the water even warmer, leading to stronger, and more frequent, hurricanes.
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The storms comparable to hurricanes that originate in the Pacific ocean are called typhoons.  \n\nI am sorry to say that it looks like Japan might have another very severe typhoon season this year.  In one very recent year they had far more than normal.\n\nOn rare occasions hurricanes can cross from the Carribean into the Pacific and regain strength becoming typhoons and vice versa.\n\nI believe they are called typhoons also when they hit China and the Philippines.\n\nFor Australia and India they are called cyclones, and that is also the generic name for all three.\n\nTyphoons can be the most spectacularly strong of all cyclones, and certainly hold the record for size.  Not difficult to understand when you consider the size of the Pacific Ocean and the fact that it is subject to heating as are the Atlantic and the Carribean, Gulf of Mexico.\n\nYou can monitor the potential for these by using the AVISO urls (sea level anomalies) found at my weather blog:\n\nhttp://360.yahoo.com/ki_te_moana\n\nThere is comprehensive weather info there if you take the time to delve into the blog and the Blog Roll.
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Well TweetyBird I have only experienced one hurricane and a handful of typhoons, as for the effects:\nThey uproot trees.\nBring down power cables and telephone lines.\nTear off roofs, and knock down fences.\nThey cause tidal waves (not tsunamis) that batter the coastline.\nShips are sunk, lighter buildings destroyed.\nThey cause floods.\nAfter a storm everything looks so clean all rubbish having been borne away by the wind.