On Monday, a path of severe weather will continue to shake the country, from Texas to Michigan. After the destruction the country has seen this past weekend and in the past few weeks, residents are undoubtedly eager for tornado season to be over. However, right around when it ends June , our hurricane season begins.
In other words, severe weather doesn't stop when tornado season ends. For the next several weeks, you might hear meteorologists throw out the terms like "tornado," "twister," and "cyclone" seemingly interchangeably, and then after that you'll probably start hearing more about "hurricanes" and "typhoons. Tornadoes and twisters are two different terms for the same natural phenomenon, a strong column of air that rotates and travels over land at destructive speeds. Sizes can range from a few yards to several hundred meters in diameter.
This is almost always true of tornadoes too, although on rare occasions "anticyclonic" tornadoes spinning in the opposite direction do occur tornadic circulation is determined by the local winds. This is where the similarities end.
The most obvious difference between tornadoes and hurricanes is that they have drastically different scales. They form under different circumstances and have different impacts on the environment.
Tornadoes are "small-scale circulations", the largest observed horizontal dimensions in the most severe cases being on the order of 1 to 1. They most often form in association with severe thunderstorms which develop in the high wind-shear environment of the Central Plains during spring and early summer, when the large-scale wind flow provides favorable conditions for the sometimes violent clash between the moist warm air from the Gulf of Mexico with the cold dry continental air coming from the northwest.
However, tornadoes can form in many different circumstances and places around the globe. Hurricane landfalls are often accompanied by multiple tornadoes. While tornadoes can cause much havoc on the ground tornadic wind speeds have been estimated at to more than mph , they have very short lifetimes on the order of minutes , and travel short distances. They have very little impact on the evolution of the surrounding storm, and basically do not affect the large-scale environment at all.
Hurricanes, on the other hand, are large-scale circulations with horizontal dimensions from 60 to well over miles in diameter. They form at low latitudes, generally between 5 and 20 degrees, but never right at the equator. Tornadoes produce wind speeds of at least 34 knots 40 mph. Hurricanes and tornadoes are both known for how dangerous and destructive they can be.
Hurricanes are capable of even more widespread destruction due to their size and their ability to move across entire regions and last for several days, causing destruction with both high winds and massive amounts of rainfall. In casual use, the word cyclone is sometimes used to refer to a tornado , but it is not used this way in scientific contexts.
Whether you need one-on-one or group study sessions, Dictionary Academy tutoring is custom-fit to meet your learning needs. Feedback See Today's Synonym. Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Previous "Prospective" vs. Hurricane Vs. Typhoon Hurricane Vs. Tornado Cyclones Vs. Hurricanes Vs. Typhoons Vs. Why are some tropical cyclones called hurricanes and others called typhoons? What is a cyclone? In other places, the generic term tropical cyclone is used.
Cyclone vs. Cyclones vs. Those that form in the tropics are called tropical cyclones.
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