whats the diffrence between tornadoes, hurricanes and whirlwinds?

Question

sorry bout the spellin

Answer 1

TORNADO:-
According to the Glossary of Meteorology (AMS 2000), a Tornado is "a violently ROTATING Column of air, pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud." Literally, in order for a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with the ground and the cloud base. Weather scientists haven't found it so simple in practice, however, to classify and define tornadoes. For example, the difference is unclear between an strong mesocyclone (parent thunderstorm circulation) on the ground, and a large, weak tornado.

WATERSPOUT:-
A waterspout is a tornado over water -- usually meaning non-supercell tornadoes over water. Waterspouts are common along the southeast U.S. coast -- especially off southern Florida and the Keys -- and can happen over seas, bays and lakes worldwide. Although waterspouts are always tornadoes by definition; they don't officially count in tornado records unless they hit land. They are smaller and weaker than the most intense Great Plains tornadoes, but still can be quite dangerous.

HURRICANE:-
Although it seems hardly necessary to define the hurricane, it will perhaps be well to state that as here considered it means a STRAIGHT Wind of extraordinary velocity. It may, and frequently does, occur without the accompaniment of any precipitation.

WHIRLWIND:-
A small rotating windstorm of limited extent

Answer 2

Tornado and whirlwind are the same but the hurricane is different type of weather system.
Tornado and whirlwind form over land,affect comparatively a small area,last for a few hours,sometimes becomes violent than a hurricane(particularly tornado) and can be seen only in a radar screen only.
Hurricane forms over sea ,affect a very large area,last for days together,sometimes causes tidal waves while crossing the shore,brings heavy rain sometimes and can be seen in the satellite pictures with an eye.

Answer 3

Dictionary.com says the following:

Tornado: a localized, violently destructive windstorm occurring over land, esp. in the Middle West, and characterized by a long, funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground and made visible by condensation and debris.

Hurricane: a violent, tropical, cyclonic storm of the western North Atlantic, having wind speeds of or in excess of 72 mph (32 m/sec).

Whirlwind: any of several relatively small masses of air rotating rapidly around a more or less vertical axis and advancing simultaneously over land or sea, as a dust devil, tornado, or waterspout.

Hopefully that helps!

Matthew

Answer 4

i don't think there is a big difference between tornadoes and whirlwinds.
hurricanes though are slightly different.

the easiest way to tell tornados and hurricanes apart is where they start.

hurricanes start out on water(seas) and they may or may not come to land
tornados start out on land, and they stay in it

Answer 5

Tornadoes and whirlwinds are essentially the same thing as are water spouts. Think of whirlwinds and water spouts being miny tornadoes.

Tornadoes develop near the boundary between the upcurrents and downdraughts in a storm cloud. A 'funnel cloud' develops first from the cloud base and this may then extend down to ground level. 'Waterspouts' are simply tornadoes that form over water rather than land. They tend to lose their energy as soon as they cross from water to land. Waterspouts are usually confined to shallow waters during warmer seasons.The destruction caused by tornadoes is due mainly to the violence of the winds. There is very low pressure at the centre of the vortex. If a tornado goes over a building it can explode outwards because of the sudden drop in pressure as the vortex passes over the building. Although they are usually less than 250 m across, they can travel a long way, sometimes more than 200 km (125 miles) across the land surface. They pick up material from the ground as they go, including cows, cats, dogs and other animals - including humans!

So size and distance travelled are relatively small and the duration of a Tornado is usually short, being measured in minutes or hours.

Warm and cool airstreams collide
A rotating area of low pressure storm clouds form
Air within a low pressure front rises, creating a strong upward draught like a vacuum cleaner
This draws in surrounding warm air from ground level, causing it to spin faster and faster
These strong air currents can create a vortex - a spiralling funnel of wind - that can reach speeds of 300mph
Where the funnel touches the ground, it creates a path of concentrated destruction, rarely more than 250m across

Heavy objects, like cars and cows, can be sucked up and flung around like confetti, and houses appear to explode. This is because air pressure within the vortex is extremely low. Inside the building the air pressure is normal, so when the tornado passes over, the air inside the building expands, creating an explosion.

Wind speeds in tornadoes can vary from 72 to almost 300mph. Fortunately, only 2 percent of all tornadoes have winds greater than 200 mph.

By definition, a hurricane is fierce rotating storm with an intense centre of low pressure that only happens in the tropics. In south-east Asia they're known as typhoons and in the Indian Ocean, cyclones.

They cause high winds, huge waves, and heavy flooding. In 1998, Hurricane Gilbert produced 160mph winds, killing 318 people, and devastating Jamaica. A tropical storm can only be classified as a hurricane if it sustains wind speeds above 73mph or force 12 on the Beaufort Scale. Each year about 50 tropical storms reach hurricane status.

One of the most powerful of all weather systems, hurricanes are powered by the heat energy released by the condensation of water vapour. However, the conditions have to be exact for a hurricane to form, with the sea's surface temperature being above 26.5°C.

How hurricanes happen
Air above warm tropical water rises quickly as it is heated by the sea. As the air rises it rotates or spins creating an area of low pressure, known as the eye of the storm. The eye can be clearly seen on satellite pictures, and is usually eerily calm.

The hurricane only moves slowly at speeds of 20-25mph bringing torrential rain and thunderstorms and very strong winds. However, they also cause flooding on low lying coastlines with a phenomenon known as a 'storm surge'.

Storm surge
This is caused by the intense low pressure at the eye of a hurricane, combining with the effect of strong winds. The sea rises 1cm for every millibar of pressure - if the pressure is 930 millibar, the sea surge will be about 80 cm. Hurricanes can raise the seas surface by as much as 4m.

The hurricane winds push the surge along in front of its path. When this surge hits low-lying coasts, the effects can be devastating. In addition to the sea surge, flooding can also result from torrential rain falling from the storm clouds.

Once it reaches the mainland, a hurricane may cause widespread damage for a few days, but with no warm water to supply heat, they quickly die out.

So in short, Hurricanes are massive storms that have a duration that can be measured in days or weeks. Hurricanes have circular winds but because of the size of the storm they do not have the same intensity at the vortex as a Tornado.
Hurricanes are limited to the tropics whereas Tornadoes occur all over the world, apart from the polar regions, I remember reading somewhere.