what is the difference between Cyclone and Tornado?

Answer 1

A cyclone is a cyclonicly (counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, clockwise in the southern hemisphere) rotating weather system. These can be hurricanes, low pressure systems, etc.

These cyclones can also be on a smaller scale such as inside a storm. In that case it is called a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone is what a tornado spawns from and is an extension of. So, a tornado is like a mesocyclone but, not a cyclone because cyclones are on a larger scale.

There are also anticyclones and mesoanticyclones which are the same thing except rotating in the opposite direction.

Answer 2

I didn't read the answers but the difference between a Cyclone and a Tornado is that Cyclones are a column of wind that form at sea near land and blows wind out. A Tornado forms in land and doesn't blow the wind it sucks it up like a vacuum cleaner. People have witnessed the funnel as a dark hole that developed lightning in a F2 tornado directly inside the funnel.

Answer 3

Let me answer that question from someone who is a part of the SKYWARN program from the National Weather Service. A cyclone, just like a hurricane and a typhoon, is a tropical system that forms over water and usually makes landfall. A tornado is a rapidly descending column or air that is caused by a thunderstorm, usually a supercell, which spawns the most tornadoes. It should be noted that tornadoes can be spawned by hurricanes (cyclones, typhoons) as well, but they are not one and the same.

Answer 4

I think the confusion comes because cyclone has at least 3 distinct meanings:
1. It is another word for tornado in the US and Canada.
2. It is any low pressure area with counterclockwise spin in the Northern Hemisphere or clockwise spin in the Southern Hemisphere.
3. In the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal it is a synonym for what's called a hurricane in the Atlantic and East Pacific and a typhoon in the rest of the Pacific.

Tornadoes are intense rotating columns of air usually hanging from underneath an intense thunderstorm. They are no larger than about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) wide, and are usually much smaller than that.

Answer 5

Cyclone = Hurricane

One hurricane can spawn up to several hundred tornadoes, that's the magnitude of difference between the two types of storms.

Tornadoes are largely small twisters on the ground, usually in the midwest.

Hurricanes and cyclones usually come in off big water (oceans) and damage coastal areas. Then they lose power as they go inland and break up, often producing a few dozen tornadoes in the process.

Answer 6

A cyclone...depending on where you are is the same as a hurricane. Regional dialects, cultural differences, or familiar titles call them Hurricanes, cyclones, or typhoones.
A tornado is a land or water based violently rotating colomn of air.

Answer 7

cyclone = any airmass that spins counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere or clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere

tornado = a cyclone resulting from trapped upper cold air funnelling down to the Earth and trapped lower warm, humid air funneling up.

Answer 8

Cyclone's mother is sea and tornado's mother is land.

Answer 9

They are virtually the same thing. But, meteorologists will refer to tropical (tornados) as cyclones, whereas if it is in the midwest they always refer to them as a tornado.

Answer 10

I think from what my son tells me cyclones are in tropical regions....