what is the difference between cyclones , tornado's &hurricanes?

Answer 1

cyclones and tornadoes are the same... they're also called twisters, funnel clouds.. hurricanes are technically the same, but they happen over water.

Answer 2

A cyclone is a regional event of considerable size.

A tornado is a local event. Tornadoes accompany severe storm cells, usually occur along the front, i.e. the direction the storm cell is moving, I believe.

Hurricane is a name for cyclones that occur in the SE USA, mid-Atlantic, Western Mexico and Central American nations and all the island nations and places thereabouts.

Typhoon is a name for cyclones that occur in Pacific Ocean off Philippines, China, Japan, northern Pacific, and all those WWII islands, etc.

Cyclone is a name for cyclones that hit Australia, India.

Tornadoes are often associated with cyclones.

One recent hurricane spawned about 30 tornadoes in the SE USA.

All of these phenomena involve high speed winds. But in a tornado the winds are traveling in a high speed vortex.

A tornado usually has a short, but very destructive duration. Winds can approach 275 mph....

Hurricane winds are not as strong, but they still do great damage as they take their sweet time pounding you for a much longer duration. Winds greater than 75 mph. Typical hurricanes have many 100mph gusts. Sometimes worse for the biggies...150+

Tornadoes usually revolve counterclockwise in the USA, but occasionally there is a clockwise tornado.

Hurricanes revolve counterclockwise. Actually, it is the winds that are moving that way, pushing the clouds and rain....

I think cyclones south of the equator move clockwise, same for any tornadoes there (most of the time).

A tornado hit London recently. USA is not the only place. Some occur in Holland.

Waterspouts are tornadoes on the water. Good to stay out of !!! especially if you have a sailboat or small boat. Can suck up fish and rain the fish on land. That has also happened in England.

A really big Typhoon is the worst of all.

A 'small, tight' hurricane eye is worse than a big eye. The winds at the center are much more ferocious. Storm surge follows the NE edge of the hurricane, rotating CCW.

On the more absolute, but less visible level, hurricanes transfer heat energy from the sea to the far upper atmosphere (hurricane winds exit clockwise at the top) where the heat can be radiated to outer space. Thus they are a vital cooling mechaniism.

Tornadoes are not so powerful in the larger aspect, but do serve also to transfer heat from hot to cold air in the nearer upper atmosphere. Most of the transfer is between air masses.

When heat is given up this way, heavy rains accompany a hurricane and hail accompanies a tornado. There are strong winds in both, much turbulence as for thunderstorms, only more powerful. Hail and tornadoes can occur during a hurricane. Rain and hail accompany both. But a hurricane mostly produces extreme winds and heavy rains.

The fastest winds are in the eye wall. The eye itself is a relative zone of quiet, often fooling people into believing the worst is over -- and then they are hit by winds from the opposite direction, equally ferocious, followed by the last half of the hurricane.

We could solve some big problems by learning how to harvest heat energy from the oceans for our energy dilemma.

Enough, I hope.

Answer 3

This is the third time I have answered this question today.

Tropical revolving storms are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans; typhoons in the South China Sea (Western Pacific); and tropical cyclones in the Indian and south Pacific oceans. They are synoptic scale systems that form in warm tropical waters on the equatorial trough.

Tornadoes are vortices that extend to the ground from severe thunderstorms. They are tens of metres in diameter. They are found on land or water and have been recorded in every country. They are not related to tropical revolving storms although the storms can contain severe thunderstorms which could generate tornadoes.

Answer 4

cyclones southern hemisphere, hurricanes northern hemisphere

tornado is like a cyclone/hurricane but with a narrower vortex (eye)

all three form when cold air and hot air converge under the right conditions...

tornados can happen over land or water as with cyclones and hurricanes.

generally if a tornado forms over water is is deemed to be called a water spout

hope this helps

Answer 5

most of the answers before mine are probably more correct, but im told it is all in the name, depends what country you come from

Answer 6

Click on these and read about them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane