Hurricane, Cyclone, Storm, Tornado, Typhoon: Their Differences

[islander]

These terms can be confusing because of how they are used.  Technically, a cyclone (lower case) is ANY rotating low pressure system (rotating counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere).  Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones (note upper case) are the same thing but are termed by where they exist.  The tropical cyclone is called a hurricane (if sustained winds are at least 65 knots) over the Atlantic basin and the eastern Pacific Ocean, while over the western Pacific it is called a Typhoon.  The same type of system is called a Cyclone over the Indian Ocean area.

A tornado is another type of cyclone that is born in thunderstorms.  In some cases, tropical cyclones can produce many tornadoes if conditions are right. (an answer by a meteorologist, http://answers.yahoo.com/)

[islander]

thus:

Hurricane

A hurricane is a tropical cyclone, occurring in the North Atlantic Ocean or the Northeast Pacific Ocean, east of the International Dateline.

Hurricanes generally form in the equilateral area of the Atlantic, and due to the wind patterns, travel into the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and up the east U.S. coast.

-excerpts from wikipedia and http://answers.yahoo.com/

[chicogon]

Thank you, Isles, for sharing this info with us...

[islander]

most welcome, fr chic.  i hope everything's fine and safe there with you in new orleans where the house of the rising sun is.

[islander]

cyclone/Cyclone

In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth.  This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale cyclonic circulations are centered on areas of low atmospheric pressure. (wikipedia)

A Cyclone is a cyclone in the Indian Ocean.

[islander]

Typhoon

A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean between 180° and 100°E.  This region is referred to as the northwest Pacific basin.

For organizational purposes, the northern Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions: the eastern (North America to 140°W), central (140°W to 180°), and western (180° to 100°E).  Identical phenomena in the eastern north Pacific are called hurricanes, with tropical cyclones moving into the western Pacific re-designated as typhoons. 

The Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for tropical cyclone forecasts is in Japan, with other tropical cyclone warning centers for the northwest Pacific in Honolulu (the Joint Typhoon Warning Center), the Philippines, and Hong Kong. 

While the RSMC names each system, the main name list itself is coordinated amongst 18 countries, including the United States, who have territories threatened by typhoons each year.  The Philippines uses their own naming list for systems which approach the country. (wikipedia)

[islander]

cyclone (lower case letter c) is the generic term for this weather disturbance (ugh, i better call it natural disaster).  its location spells the difference in names.  thus:

Cyclone    - Indian Ocean
Hurricane - Eastern North Pacific
Typhoon  - Northwest Pacific

[islander]

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather.

Kinds of storms:

    Ice storm
    Blizzard
    Snowstorm
    Ocean Storm
    Firestorm
    Dust devil
    Wind storm
    Squall
    Gale
    Thunderstorm
    Tropical cyclone
    Hailstorm
    Tornado

-wikipedia


it turns out that a cyclone is a kind of storm.

[islander]

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, destructive wind storm occurring on land. Usually its appearance is that of a dark, funnel-shaped cyclone. Often tornadoes are preceded by a thunderstorm and a wall cloud. They are often called the most destructive of storms, and while they form all over the world, the interior of the United States is the most prone area, especially throughout Tornado Alley. (wikipedia)

[islander]

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669

[islander]

the tornado scene of the 1939 movie the wizard of oz

how the sequence was made at a time when computer generation wasn't even in the english vocabulary yet:

TORNADO PROCEDURE

For the tornado used in the Kansas farm sequence, a Gantry Crane travelling the length of Stage #14 was hung from the bottom of roof trusses.  The Gantry car supported a canvas cone in the shape of a tornado which was rotated by a D.C. motor on a speed control. The motor assembly was arranged to tip sideways and was controlled from the car together with its cross travel.  The approach was fastened to a car travelling on a predetermined track and containing the arrangement for dust.  This car was moved by operators below the set.  The set was built on a platform and was 3/4 scale.  The sky was projected moving foreground glasses.  Air was piped around the set for wind effects.  Wind machines were also used. (http://www.wendyswizardofoz.com/)

[islander]

The Sun
Hurricane Isaac lashed Louisiana, 29 August 2012

[hubag bohol]

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather.

Kinds of storms:

    Ice storm
    Blizzard
    Snowstorm
    Ocean Storm
    Firestorm
    Dust devil
    Wind storm
    Squall
    Gale
    Thunderstorm
    Tropical cyclone
    Hailstorm
    Tornado

-wikipedia


it turns out that a cyclone is a kind of storm.

Mam, Mam, unsa man pud nang "tempest", Mam?

[hubag bohol]

HURRICANE, n. An atmospheric demonstration once very common but now generally abandoned for the tornado and cyclone. The hurricane is still in popular use in the West Indies and is preferred by certain old-fashioned sea-captains. It is also used in the construction of the upper decks of steamboats, but generally speaking, the hurricane's usefulness has outlasted it. --Ambrose Bierce

[islander]

no wonder ambrose bierce (and i take care to say that he's on the top of my list of favorite humorists) very much resemble you.  too bad he hurricaned out of this world without a trace.  

[islander]

Mam, Mam, unsa man pud nang "tempest", Mam?

mam?  nganong na-mam god tawon kog ahat.  senyora man unta koh.  ikaw gyod, your excellency, the ambassador hubag...

aw, ask, and it shall be given unto you...

sayang way definition ug tempest si ambrose bierce.
 
ang tempest wa man tingaliy kalainan aning tanan nga weather disturbances.  mas bayolente lang ang meaning tungod sa definition, kuno.  mora bitaw ug hurricane nga nag-run amok...

ang diperensya lang pod kay wa ta maanad ug gamit ani.  lalim ba kag moingon ang pagasa ug "tempest signal no. 3 over northern luzon".  malibog lang tag meteorologist ba na sila o holder ug phd degree on shakespearean studies.

[islander]

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone.  It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation.  He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island.  There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's low nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand. (wikipedia)


The shipwreck in Act I, Scene 1, in a 1797 engraving based on a painting by George Romney*

*uy, ig-unsa kaha ni siya sa among silingan nga si mitt...

[islander]

tempest in a teapot (or teacup)

very, very interesting, this one.  after all, it's not only man or tubagbohol.com that evolves.  words and phrases do, too.

Meaning

A small or unimportant event that is over-reacted to, as if it were of considerably more consequence.

Origin

Readers from England might well be tut-tutting about the mangling of their perfectly good phrase 'a storm in a teacup' and castigating the American 'tempest in a teapot' as a newcomer, having little more reason to exist than its neat alliteration.

In fact, the teacup wasn't the first location of the said storm, nor was the teapot.  The phrase probably derives from the writing of Cicero, in De Legibus, circa 52BC.  The translation of his "Excitabat fluctus in simpulo" is often given as "He was stirring up billows in a ladle".  Other cultures have versions of the phrase in their own languages.  The translation of the Netherlands version is 'a storm in a glass of water', and the Hungarian 'tempest in a potty'.

Whether the first user of the expression in English had Cicero in mind, he made no mention of tea-making, although he wasn't so far away.  The Duke of Ormond's letters to the Earl of Arlington, 1678, include this:

    "Our skirmish seems to be come to a period, and compared with the great things now on foot, is but a storm in a cream bowl."

[islander]

Also, before the 'teacup/teapot' versions were well-established, another nobleman came up with a version that didn't involve the tea-table at all. The Gentleman's Magazine, 1830, records:

    "Each campaign, compared with those of Europe, has been only, in Lord Thurlow's phrase, a storm in a wash-hand basin."

'Tempest in a teapot' is the version that is used most often in the USA, and hardly at all in other places, but which nevertheless appears to have a Scottish rather than an American origin. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 1825, included a debate over the relative merits of the Scottish poets James Hogg and Tom Campbell. Campbell's imagery of raging tempests in his poetic work wasn't well received there:

    What is the 'tempest raging o'er the realms of ice'?  A tempest in a teapot!

[islander]

Finally, we come to the version of the phrase that we English might imagine is the 'proper' original version.  This appears to be neither original or English as it is later than the versions above, and the first mention that I can find of it also hails from north of the border.  Catherine Sinclair, the Scottish novelist and children's writer, wrote a novel of fashionable society life, Modern Accomplishments, or the march of intellect, in 1838:

    "As for your father's good-humoured jests being ever taken up as a serious affair, it really is like raising a storm in a teacup."

-from The meaning and origin of the expression: Tempest in a teapot, http://www.phrases.org.uk/