Cyclones, Typhoons and Hurricanes

Written by: Brian Neudorff

The tragedy in Myanmar continues to unfold, and as of Tuesday morning (5/6/08), the death toll was being reported as 22,000 and nearly doubled that remains missing in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. Nargis--a popular woman's name in India--is the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone ever to hit Myanmar (Burma). The storm hit the coast of Myanmar Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 130-135 mph.

To put this in perspective, this storm was slightly more intense than Hurricane Katrina, which made at landfall in August 2005 with winds of about 125 mph.

How do cyclones differ from hurricanes and typhoons? Cyclones are the same type of storm as hurricanes and typhoons, just called a different name based on where it forms on the earth. Collectively hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are known as "tropical cyclones."

Hurricanes occur in the Atlantic and in parts of the Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line. Typhoons form in the north Pacific Ocean west of the date line, and these storms are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean and in the Coral Sea off northeastern Australia.