They're all the same — officially, they're all tropical cyclones. But they get different names in different parts of the world. Here's how you can tell them apart — even though they're not so different.
WASHINGTON — Typhoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 114 people in the Philippines with even more missing and then hit Vietnam Friday. A second typhoon, Fong-Wong, is forecast to hit the Philippines around Sunday and strengthen to a major storm by that time.
Some facts about typhoons:Hurricane? Cyclone? Typhoon?They're all the same — officially, tropical cyclones. But they get different names in different parts of the world. Hurricane is used in the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, central and northeast Pacific. They are typhoons in the northwest Pacific. In the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, they are called cyclones.Tropical cyclone is used in the southwest Indian Ocean; in the southwestern Pacific and southeastern Indian Ocean, they are severe tropical cyclones.StrengthA storm gets a name and is considered a tropical storm at 39 mph. It becomes a hurricane, typhoon, tropical cyclone, or cyclone at 74 mph. There are five strength categories, depending on wind speed. The highest category is 5, and that's above 155 mph. Australia has a different system for categorizing storm strength.Kalmaegi is on the stronger side of typhoons, experts said. Its maximum winds in the Philippines reached 132 mph, including sustained winds on the ground of 93 mph.The highest tropical cyclone winds recorded were in 2015's Hurricane Patricia in the eastern Pacific, while Typhoon Tip in 1979 had the lowest barometric pressure, which is a key measurement that meteorologists use.RotationIf they are north of the equator, they rotate counterclockwise. If they are south, they rotate clockwise.SeasonThe Atlantic and central Pacific hurricane seasons are June 1 through Nov. 30. Eastern Pacific is May 15 to Nov. 30; northwestern Pacific season is nearly all year, with the most from May to November. The cyclone season in the south Pacific and Australia runs from November to April. The Bay of Bengal has two seasons, April to June and September to November.Vietnam tends to get landfalling typhoons around this time of year.The busiest placeThe northwestern Pacific where Typhoon Kalmaegi hit is the busiest place on Earth because of the year-round warm water, weak upper-level crosswinds and frequent thunderstorm activity that can provide the seeds for storms to form, said Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany.By this time of year, the northwest Pacific averages 23 named storms, 14 of which become typhoons, according to Colorado State Uni
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Hurricane? Cyclone? Typhoon? Here’s the differenceTyphoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 114 people in the Philippines and left even more people missing as it moved on to slam Vietnam.
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Hurricane? Cyclone? Typhoon? Here’s the differenceTyphoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 114 people in the Philippines and left even more people missing as it moved on to slam Vietnam.
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