What is the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane?
TYPHOONS and hurricanes are often confused, with many not knowing the difference between the two natural phenomenons.
The main difference is the location of the storm. Here is all you need to know about these catastrophic occurrences.
What is a Typhoon?
Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are names for the same weather phenomenon.
The difference between them is their location.
Typhoons are storms that develop in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Typhoons are classified as "typhoon", "very strong typhoon" or "violent typhoon" - but some are calling Hagibis a "super typhoon";.
This term means that it could bring extreme weather to a country which regularly sees typhoons, but not on this scale.
What is a hurricane?
Powerful storms arising in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific are called hurricanes.
North of the equator they spin anticlockwise because of the rotation of the earth.
They turn the opposite way in the southern hemisphere.
Cyclones are like giant weather engines fuelled by water vapour as it evaporates from the sea.
Warm, moist air rises from the surface, creating a low pressure system that sucks in air from surrounding areas - which in turn is warmed by the ocean.
As the vapour rises it cools and condenses into swirling bands of cumulonimbus storm clouds.
The system grows and spins faster, sucking in more air and feeding off the energy in sea water that has been warmed by the sun.
At the centre, a calm "eye" of the storm is created where cooled air sinks towards the ultra-low pressure zone below, surrounded by spiralling winds of warm air rising.
The faster the wind, the lower the air pressure at the centre and the storm grows stronger and stronger.
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Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land as they are no longer fed by evaporation from the warm sea.
But they often move far inland - dumping huge amounts of rain and causing devastating wind damage - before the "fuel" runs out and the storm dies.
Hurricanes can also cause storm surges when the low air pressure sucks the sea level higher than normal, swamping low-lying coasts if the height of the storm coincides with high tide.
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