Well, a hurricane and typhone are really the same thing. However, a huricane generally occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and a typhoon generally occurs in the Pacific Ocean. Tornados are similar but occur on land and are not as large. "Cyclone" is more or less a generic term that refers to any circular wind storm. For more information regarding wind storms, visit the Arizona State University's "ChainReaction" site at http://chainreaction.asu.edu/weather/digin/storms.htm

There are few things that need a bit of clarification with Kim's answer. A typhoon is a hurricane that occurs in the WEST Pacific. In the east Pacific, they are also called Hurricanes. According to the text book from which I am now teaching earth science, a cyclone is one of two things. One it is a surface low pressure system. A surface high pressure system is called an anticyclone. It is pressure differences between high and low pressure systems that generate wind. Therefore you can have wind associated with both. The second possible meaning for the word cyclone is a hurricane in the Indian Ocean. ************ "uiyoyui: poopiopi" If you are going to give a negative rating, you owe everyone here an understandable justification for that rating.

I'd like to clarify something too. Kim said: "Tornados are similar (to hurricanes) but occur on land and are not as large." Wow. Where to start. Tornadoes and hurricanes are completely different weather phenomena, form in completely different conditions, have vastly different size and time scales and physical characteristics. Other than that, they're similar!!! Actually, the only similarity is that they both exhibit rotation, one on a scale of hundreds of miles, one generally on a scale of a mile or less. That's where it ends. On the same note, you could say that hurricanes and a figure skater are similar, one is just on ice and one is over water. Also, tornadoes CAN form over water, and are called water spouts. They're generally weaker than land tornadoes. Hurricanes are LARGE scale weather systems that form over warm ocean waters near the equator due to the convergence of several factors, including LOW wind shear, warm ocean water, and the Coriolis force. They are large features that exist over time scales of many hours to days. Tornadoes (usually) form in supercell thunderstorms, which are rotating thunderstorms that form in conditions of HIGH wind shear and large atmospheric instability. They are small features that exist on small time scales of minutes to an hour.

I was trying to determine the difference between a hurricane and typhoon and I came across a couple of websites. According to another website I was looking at, a hurricane occurs in the East and West Indies. The West Indies are, of course, Where Hurricane Katrina came from. The East Indies are where the Islands of Borneo and New Guinea are, and are located in the Pacific Ocean. A Typhoon occurs in the western Pacific or the Indian Ocean. From what I can gather typhoon and hurricane are basically two words that denote the same thing and the only difference I have been able to determine is that typhoon is what the thing is called when it affects the continent of Asia.

It really depends on where they are located the direction of their spin and what kind of pressure they generate as to what they will be called. Hurricane, cyclone, typhoon, tropical storm or depression. A cyclone is a low pressure atmospheric mass. In the northern hemisphere they rotate counterclockwise. A high pressure mass is called an anticyclone and rotates clockwise. Under certain circumstances, a cyclonic mass can get itself worked up into a frenzy and it will start winding itself up faster and tighter as conditions permit, until you end up with a hurricane. Technically, a cyclone is any kind of circular wind storm. But now, only used to describe a strong tropical storm found off of the coast of India, something you definitely would not call a tornado. As for hurricanes and typhoons, well, that was a bit of a trick question. Hurricanes and Typhoons are the same thing, but in different places. If you're standing on the coast of Florida and there's a strong tropical storm coming, you may be hit by a hurricane. If you're fishing in the Philipines, be careful, because you're in typhoon territory. Hurricanes happen in the Atlantic and typhoons happen in the Pacific, it just that simple. So basically, hurricanes and typhoons form over water and are huge, while tornados form over land and are much smaller in size. But, try telling that to the cows in Kansas. As for the term cyclone, you can attach that to any circular wind storm you want, for now.

Hurricanes (tropical storms) are named after both girls and boys, it used to be just girls but it changed. They are always in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico or the west Atlantic. I've never heard of a Hurricane from anywhere else. The first storm of the year has a name beginning with A, the second with B and so on throughout the year. Once the alphabet is used up you go back to the beginning i.e tropical storm 27 begins with A. You don't hear about them all because they don't do any damage or fizzle out very quickly. You always hear about the big ones, Katrina, Andrew, Wilma. These names are now retired due to their catastrophic history and to prevent confusion. There is currently a cyclone in Burma in the Pacific. You don't really hear of many catastrophic cyclones but they are in the Pacific. They also use boys and girls names and use the same alphabetic sequence throughout the year. Normally the US has it's own name for most things. A hurricane is the U.S name for a tropical cyclone. A typhoon is another name for a tropical cyclone usually in the northwest Pacific. tornadoes on the other hand are much smaller than hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons, 100s of metres rather than 100s of miles wide. They are born from different meteorological conditions.

1) "Depending on their location and strength, tropical cyclones are referred to by other names, such as hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression and simply cyclone." "Tropical cyclones are classified into three main groups, based on intensity: tropical depressions, tropical storms, and a third group of more intense storms, whose name depends on the region. For example, if a tropical storm in the Northwestern Pacific reaches hurricane-strength winds on the Beaufort scale, it is referred to as a typhoon; if a tropical storm passes the same benchmark in the Northeast Pacific Basin, or in the Atlantic, it is called a hurricane. Neither "hurricane" nor "typhoon" is used in the South Pacific. Additionally, as indicated in the table below, each basin uses a separate system of terminology, making comparisons between different basins difficult. In the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes from the Central North Pacific sometimes cross the International Date Line into the Northwest Pacific, becoming typhoons (such as Hurricane/Typhoon Ioke in 2006); on rare occasions, the reverse will occur. It should also be noted that typhoons with sustained winds greater than 67 metres per second (130 kn) or 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) are called Super Typhoons by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. A tropical depression is an organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined, closed surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of less than 17 metres per second (33 kn) or 39 miles per hour (63 km/h). It has no eye and does not typically have the organization or the spiral shape of more powerful storms. However, it is already a low-pressure system, hence the name "depression". The practice of the Philippines is to name tropical depressions from their own naming convention when the depressions are within the Philippines' area of responsibility. A tropical storm is an organized system of strong thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds between 17 metres per second (33 kn) (39 miles per hour (63 km/h)) and 32 metres per second (62 kn) (73 miles per hour (117 km/h)). At this point, the distinctive cyclonic shape starts to develop, although an eye is not usually present. Government weather services, other than the Philippines, first assign names to systems that reach this intensity (thus the term named storm). A hurricane or typhoon (sometimes simply referred to as a tropical cyclone, as opposed to a depression or storm) is a system with sustained winds of at least 33 metres per second (64 kn) or 74 miles per hour (119 km/h). A cyclone of this intensity tends to develop an eye, an area of relative calm (and lowest atmospheric pressure) at the center of circulation. The eye is often visible in satellite images as a small, circular, cloud-free spot. Surrounding the eye is the eyewall, an area about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to 80 kilometres (50 mi) wide in which the strongest thunderstorms and winds circulate around the storm's center. Maximum sustained winds in the strongest tropical cyclones have been estimated at about 85 metres per second (165 kn) or 195 miles per hour (314 km/h)." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricanes 2) "A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. 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. Most tornadoes have wind speeds between 40 mph (64 km/h) and 110 mph (177 km/h), are approximately 250 feet (75 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. Some attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than a mile (1.6 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km). Although tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica, most occur in the United States. They also commonly occur in southern Canada, south-central and eastern Asia, east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, Italy, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado

They are pretty much the same thing except that hurricanes occur in the Atlantic and cyclones occur in the Pacific.

Meteorologically there is no difference, everything is a "cyclone" but in different parts of the world they're called: Hurricane, Typhoon (and Super Typhoon), or Cyclone.

Hurricanes are NOT limited to the Atlantic Ocean. I believe they have to do with their origon, as to if they are classified as a hurricane or a typhoon. We have had at least 2 hurricanes in the Pacific this year. Look it up.