Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are all tropical storms.

They are all the same

thing but are given different names depending on where they appear.

When they reach populated areas they usually bring very strong winds and rain which
can cause a lot of damage.

Hurricanes are tropical storms that form over the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast
Pacific.

Cyclones are formed over the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Typhoons are formed over the Northwest Pacific Ocean.

Why do storms have names?

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

Tropical storms last a long time and are given names so they can be identified quickly.
In most places, the first storm of a year will have a name beginning with A, such as
Hurricane Alice, and the next one gets a name beginning with B.

Weather scientists hold meetings to decide on new names for the next year.

Names of storms which cause a lot of damage are never used again.

What happens in a tropical storm?

GETTY IMAGES
Typhoons can whip up big waves

Air rises quickly when it is heated by warm sea water.

As the air cools down again it is pushed aside by more warm air rising below it.

This cycle causes strong winds. Tropical storms have winds faster than 73 miles an
hour.
What damage do tropical storms cause?

GETTY IMAGES
This home in Japan was destroyed by a typhoon

Over the sea a tropical storm can whip up huge waves.

When these waves reach land they can flood large areas, including towns and cities.

Over land the strong winds can cause a lot of damage - they can flatten homes, knock
over trees and even tip over cars.

Tropical storms usually die out after a few days over land because there is no warm sea
water there to power them.

What is a state of emergency?

In times of great danger, perhaps following a natural disaster like a cyclone, the
government can declare a state of emergency.

This means the government stops performing its day-to-day duties and instead focuses
on solving the situation.

HOW TYPHOONS ARE FORMED

1. Typhoons start off as tropical thunderstorms. The strong winds pull in

moisture from the oceans.

2. The thunderstorms convert the moisture into heat. The heat causes more air
to flow to the centre of the storm causing evaporation.
 3. All the heat and air flow toward the eye creating the typhoon.

 What Causes a Typhoon?

A typhoon starts off as a convergence of air pressure and moisture produced during water vaporization. Later it
meets with global westerly winds at a low pressure area in the equatorial region of the ocean. Based on this location,
such convergences often occur in the Pacific Ocean, which contains 28% of the water covering the Earth. The size
of this particular ocean is said to be several times bigger than the Earth’s total land area. Thus, the immensity of heat
transferred by the sun and the moisture produced during water vaporization are the causes of a typhoon formation in
the Pacific and near the equator.
If excessive amounts of moisture and large scale air pressure meet up with strong spinning winds, the low pressure
convergence becomes a tropical cyclone. Instead of simply travelling vertically upwards, a clockwise spinning wind
will influence the low pressure system to travel to the west of the International Dateline towards the Northwest
Pacific Ocean Region. If this tropical cyclone reaches a sustained surface wind of 74 mph (or 64 knots, 119 kph) or
more, then the tropical cyclone becomes a typhoon.


Facts about Typhoons

 It is said that most tropical cyclones that form in the Pacific Oceans’ equatorial region annually develop into
the most powerful typhoons in the entire globe. Eighteen out of twenty-five fully developed typhoons take
the Western North Pacific route, and only a few tend to be migratory and visit the Northern Hemisphere
as hurricanes. The countries most often visited by almost all typhoons spawned annually in the Pacific
are the Philippine, China and Japan, from April to December. It is during the months of July up to
October, when the greatest number of typhoons that usually carry winds of about 130 knots and are an
estimated 600 miles in diameter, visit the countries located in the North West Pacific regions, particularly
the Philippines.

 of these countries and bring on torrential rains and flooding even at a tropical depression stage. While in the North
Western Pacific Ocean, it may meet with more winds and will pick-up speed to sustain and develop low pressure
depressions into full-blown typhoons as they enter the country. In some instances, a tropical cyclone will combine
with another tropical depression and then form what is known in the Philippines as a Super Typhoon

A country’s topography can also affect the amount of rain that a typhoon will release in an area, particularly if the
typhoon’s path will move against mountain ranges. The low lying areas of the countryside surrounding the mountain
ranges will receive considerable amounts of rainfall that can flood flat terrains for days, weeks and even months.

In recent years the modernization in some of the typhoon-prone countries of this region has caused severe flooding
to take place even in the urban areas. Most of the trees in the mountainous outskirts have been cut down to make
way for residential subdivisions, while the rock boulders have been quarried to provide for construction materials.
Hence, the occurrences of landslides and mudslides have added to the problems brought about by these typhoons.

 What Happens if the Causes of Typhoon Take Another Course?

Creation of typhoons is unavoidable because the North Western region is near the vast Pacific Ocean’s equatorial
area. This is where the extreme heat of the sun and the equator often creates low pressures from greatly heated ocean
water, and combines with the north westerly winds spiraling near the equator.
Otherwise, an easterly wind that has been deflected towards the west may meet up with a low pressure convergence,
and form into a potentially powerful hurricane instead of a typhoon. This type of weather disturbance will now
proceed towards the Northern Hemisphere.
To understand the creation of tropical storms in the Atlantic ocean, and why they visit the European and North
American countries, see the complete discussion on how a tropical cyclone becomes a hurricane instead of typhoon,
in the article about Hurricanes, Cyclones, Tornado: Definitions and Differences.