What's difference between a cyclone, tornado and hurricane?

Question

Anyone know

Answer 1

They differ in the speed of the spin, the size of the storm, it's duration, and how fast it travels.
A tornado can rotate at up to an incredible 300 mph and speed ahead at 40 mph.
.
A cyclone moves ahead at about 25 mph. It's wind doesn't swirl at more than 60 mph--but that's over an area of as much as 1000 miles, and it can last a couple of weeks.

Hurricane winds typically may swirl at 100 mph, but that's over a diameter of maybe 600 miles. With a forward speed of 10-20 mph, they can last for at least a week.
check the nasa web.

Answer 2

A tornado is on land. The only difference between a cyclone and a hurricane is that cyclones are in the Pacific Ocean and Hurricanes are in the Atlantic. At least thats the way I learned it in Earth Science.....but I had that about a decade ago so I could be wrong.

Answer 3

A cyclone and hurricane are the same and can be called as revolving storms whereas the tornado is a completely different type of weather system.The following are the main differences.
The revolving storms are large scale pressure systems covering a large area and lasting for many days whereas the tornado is small in size and covers a narrow band and lasting for a few hours.
The revolving storms form only on sea surface and weakens once they enter land area whereas tornado usually forms over land,moves over land and dies over land.
In tornados, a funnel type cloud touching the ground can be noticed whereas a similar feature usually can not be seen in the revolving storms.Sometimes the tornados will be more violent than the revolving storms even though the area that would be affected by them will be small.Revolving storms bring lot of rain also in addition to strong winds whereas wind is predominent in tornados.These are the main differences.

Answer 4

Tornados:

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

"A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both a cumulonimbus (or, in rare cases, a cumulus) cloud base and the surface of the earth. Tornadoes come in many sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris" (I'm quoting the wikipedia article.) They generally form on the land rather than out in the ocean, like cyclones do. And tornados aren't nearly as big--they are just a rotating column of air. A cyclone is a big storm SYSTEM, and it really starts out in the oceans. For more info on tornados, read the info at the above link.


Cyclones:

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

A hurricane is a type of cyclone. A cyclone is:

"A tropical cyclone is a meteorological term for a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and thunderstorms that produces strong wind and flooding rain. A tropical cyclone feeds on the heat released when moist air rises and the water vapor it contains condenses." (Again, I am quoting wikipedia).

Tropical cyclones includes tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes/typhoons.

Whether a storm is called a cyclone, a hurricane, or a typhoon depends on the place where it occurs (and there isn't really a difference in what the storms are, it's just that different places have different names for them).

Hurricanes occur in the Northeast Pacific and North Atlantic. These are the storms that hit North America and Mexico and South America, whether they hit the Atlantic Ocean/places on the East Coasts of countries or the Pacific ocean/places on the West Coast of countries (of course the cyclone can go into land or go through an island, as you know).

Typhoons Occur in the North West Pacific and the South West Pacific (these hit Asia and the waters around there).

Storms around Australia or storms generated in the Indian Ocean are just called tropical cyclones.

I found this information with the info about hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones with the info on the definition of the cyclones that I stated earlier. Check out that wikipedia link for a lot more information.

For more information on what tropical depressions and tropical storms are, read the tropical cyclone information. They are just less severe than hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones (and they can eventually become the more severe form).

Answer 5

I don't think there is a difference between a cyclone, a tornado, and a hurricane.

Answer 6

Tornadoes are on land. Cyclones and Hurricanes are in the water.

The only difference between a cyclone and a hurricane is the size. Hurricanes are like a big cyclone.

Answer 7

a cyclone and a tornado are basically the same. a hurricane is a massive 'storm' formed in the ocean, the one that hit the US are formed off North Africa.

Answer 8

Tonado is land based and occurs when a low pressure system with cool air hits a high pressure system with hot air: like between a jet stream. Hurricanes and cyclones are the same thing, being oceanic and occuring with the aid of atmospheric pressures and water temps.

Hurricanes do hit land... they aren't called Tornado Katrina. They are still hurricanes, but they make land quite easily because they are located in the air!

Answer 9

cyclones just means funnel type such as tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones, and tornadoes, meteorologists rarely use it without additional qualification. A tornado is on land, and a hurricane has to has to be on water.

Answer 10

cy·clone (sī'klōn)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[From Greek kuklōn present participle of kukloun, to rotate, from kuklos, circle.]

noun
Meteorology
An atmospheric system characterized by the rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low-pressure center, usually accompanied by stormy, often destructive weather. Cyclones circulate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
A violent tropical storm, especially one originating in the southwestern Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean.
A violent rotating windstorm.
Any of various devices using centrifugal force to separate materials.



tor·na·do (tôr-nā'dō)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Alteration (perhaps influenced by Spanish tornar, to turn), of Spanish tronada, thunderstorm, from tronar, to thunder, from Latin tonāre.]

noun: pl., -does or -dos
A rotating column of air ranging in width from a few yards to more than a mile and whirling at destructively high speeds, usually accompanied by a funnel-shaped downward extension of a cumulonimbus cloud.
A violent thunderstorm in western Africa or nearby Atlantic waters.
A whirlwind or hurricane.



hur·ri·cane (hûr'ĭ-kān, hŭr'-)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Spanish huracán, from Taino hurákanArawak kulakani, thunder.]

noun
A severe tropical cyclone originating in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea or eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean, traveling north, northwest, or northeast from its point of origin, and usually involving heavy rains.
A wind with a speed greater than 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according to the Beaufort scale.
Something resembling a hurricane in force or speed.