Hurricane vs Typhoon: What's the Difference?

What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?

Hurricanes and typhoons are the same type of storm, a tropical cyclone, but they are given different names based on where they occur.

Hurricanes vs typhoons

Hurricane is the term used for storms that mostly impact the Caribbean, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. These storms form and travel through the North Atlantic, the Central North Pacific, and the Eastern North Pacific.

Typhoon is the term used for storms that mostly impact Japan, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Korea. Cyclones in this part of the world form over the Northwest Pacific Ocean.

As the primary difference between a hurricane and typhoon is geographical, they are very similar. Both are characterized cyclical motion around a low-pressure center, high winds, heavy rain, and storm surges.

	Hurricanes	Typhoons
Type of storm	Tropical cyclone	Tropical cyclone
Oceans	North Atlantic, Central North Pacific, Eastern North Pacific	Northwest Pacific
Regions impacted	United States, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean	Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines

Other names for tropical cyclones?

Tropical cyclones form in other areas around the globe as well, such as the South Pacific and Southeast Indian Ocean, North Indian Ocean, Southwest Indian Ocean, near Australia, and Southern Pacific Ocean.

In these regions, the cyclical storms are simply referred to as cyclones or tropical cyclones.

How are tropical cyclones different from tornadoes and monsoons?

Monsoons vs tropical cyclones

While both monsoons and tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes and typhoons depending on the location) are significant atmospheric phenomena resulting in wind and heavy rain, they differ rather drastically in their nature, formation, and impact.

A tropical cyclone is a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originate from in tropical or subtropical seas. They form as a result of a combination of warm sea surface temperatures, low air pressure near the Earth’s surface, reduced vertical wind shear, and the Coriolis effect. These storms, often 180-300 miles wide, have intense rain and wind rotating around a central eye that lead to flooding, storm surges, and wind damage. Cyclones are typically short-lived storms, lasting a few days to a couple weeks.

On the other hand, a monsoon is a seasonal wind pattern that can last months, dropping heavy rain as a result of mismatched heating of land and sea. During the summer, land heats up more quickly than the ocean, causing air over the land to warm and rise. This creates a low pressure area that draws in most air from the ocean, which leads to have rainfall.

Unlike a cyclone, monsoons have lower speeds, do not revolve around a central eye, and can last several months while impact entire countries or continents. A tropical cyclone will impact a comparatively much smaller area.

	Hurricanes	Monsoons
Type of weather pattern	Tropical cyclone	Seasonal wind and rain
Energy source	Warm sea surface temperatures, low air pressure, reduced vertical wind shear, Coriolis effect	Difference in temperature between land and sea during the summer
Size and duration	Several hundred miles wide, lasting days to weeks	May impact an entire country or continent, can last months

Tornadoes vs hurricanes

Tornadoes and hurricanes are both types of rotating weather phenomena, but they have several major distinctions between them.

First, hurricanes and tornados have significant different sizes. A hurricane may be up to 300 miles wide, but tornadoes are much smaller, typically several hundred feet wide. The largest tornadoes may have a diameter just over a mile.

Next, tornadoes are much more short-lived than hurricanes. While a hurricane may last a couple weeks, a tornado may last a few minutes to an hour.

These weather patterns also derive their energy from very different sources. As mentioned previously, a hurricane uses warm ocean water as fuel. A tornado forms as a result of atmospheric instability from a land-based thunderstorm.

Finally, there is a major difference in potential wind speed. Tornadoes have the highest wind speeds on Earth. The tornado with greatest wind speed every record was over 300 miles per hour in Oklahoma in 1999. The highest wind speed recorded from a hurricane was 190 miles per hour, set in 1980 by Hurricane Allen. A category 5 hurricane will never approach the high wind speeds of the fastest tornados.

	Hurricanes	Tornadoes
Type of weather pattern	Tropical cyclone	Wind rotation in a thunderstorm
Energy source	Warm sea surface temperatures, low air pressure, reduced vertical wind shear, Coriolis effect	Atmospheric pressure differences in a thunderstorm
Size and duration	Several hundred miles wide, lasting days to weeks	Several hundred feet to a mile wide, lasting minutes to an hour
Wind speed	Up to 190mph	Up to 300mph

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Written by Graham Lumley

Graham Lumley, Digital Marketing Manager at BKV Energy, leads digital and traditional marketing strategies, focusing on educating Texans about the state's deregulated energy market. With over 8 years of marketing experience, he creates content to help consumers understand and save on their energy bills, bringing a fresh and dynamic approach to the industry.