Do you know the differences between hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons? The latest Science Behind the Forecast walks us through the differences.
Bill Burton: It's time for us to take a look at the Science Behind the Forecast as I am joined by WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Good morning, Tawana.
Tawana Andrew: Good morning. Today, we are defining cyclones, and there's a lot of definitions going on today.
BB: Yes, we're going to learn a lot in a very short time where we're talking cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, similarities and differences. Explain, please.
TA: So a cyclone is defined by the National Weather Service as a large scale circulation of winds around a central region of low atmospheric pressure, which is counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere explains a lot and nothing at the same time.
BB: Sure, it's, it's fairly, kind of, not really clear.
TA: Yeah. So diving into everything, we have hurricanes and typhoons, those are tropical cyclones. They originate over tropical and subtropical water, and they have a closed, low level circulation. Once you have a tropical system initially forming, it's classified as a tropical depression. Once the winds reach 39 miles per hour, it becomes a tropical storm, and it gets a name determined by the World Meteorological organizations conventions. So they have a list of names that they rotate through every single year, for every single ocean. Now for the Tropical Storm, once that wind climbs to 74 miles per hour or stronger, it's officially a hurricane, a typhoon or a tropical cyclone, because we can't make things easy for people. So the classification depends on where the storm forms. So let's say it forms in the northern Atlantic, the Northern Pacific, or the Eastern North Pacific, then it's a hurricane. But if it forms in the northwest Pacific Ocean, it's a typhoon. If it forms in the South Pacific or the Indian Oceans, it's a tropical cyclone.
BB: Okay, my notes are getting a little confused here.
TA: Yeah, I completely understand that. Now a hurricane can become a typhoon Once it crosses the International Date Line, which is at 180 degrees west longitude. So this doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and the last time it actually happened was last year 2023 with Hurricane Dora. And once it crosses over the International Date Line, the forecasting responsibility actually changes. It switches from the National Hurricane Center to The Japan Meteorological Agency. So whoever's in control of forecasting for it, it will switch once it crosses over. Basically, what is this imaginary line in the Pacific.
BB: Okay. And does it keep the same name?
TA: And it will keep the same name. Yes. So that's one part of meteorology that gets pretty interesting in the Pacific Ocean during hurricane season. But we have other types of cyclones. We have mid latitude cyclones, also called an extra tropical cyclone, because, once again, we can't make things easy for people. So a mid latitude or extra tropical cyclone is basically a large scale low pressure system that is found in the mid latitude. So we're talking 30 degrees north to 55 degrees north. Basically, they're responsible for most of the active weather that we see across the United States. If we have tornadoes or a blizzard in the forecast, most likely a mid latitude cyclone is responsible for that. And these types of cyclones actually form in areas of large horizontal temperature variation, or in layman's terms, where we have a front. So, if there's a front involved, then it's a mid latitude cyclone. If you hear me on television mention a warm front, cold front, we're talking mid latitude or extra tropical cyclone.
BB: So many variations for what is more or less the same thing, whether you're talking hurricanes or cyclones or typhoons. But at least now we have a better handle on all of this, thanks to this edition of Science Behind the Forecast with WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Thanks for the knowledge, Tawana.
TA: Of course.
This transcript has been edited for clarity
