when did we start calling hurricanes cyclones?

Showing what a computer thinks is a relevant advert. A few months ago a news item.about the Shuutle's external tank had a Google ad for septic tanks.

AFAIK only american cyclones are dubbed 'hurricanes', and Japanese cyclones 'typhoons'. We have a great many cyclones too in the UK, but these are almost always weak pathetic affairs that we simply call 'depressions'.

> when did we start calling hurricanes cyclones?

When people live in the Southern hemisphere and their big winds rotate the other way to ours.

Tropical Storms are only called Hurricanes when they're in the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific. They're always called cyclones when they're in the Indian Ocean and Typhoons in the Western Pacific Ocean.

These are all the same phenomena; the differences are linguistic rather than meteorological.

Number of people losing homes soars!

"almost always weak pathetic affairs "

Eep!!! Not sure tempting Fate and the Ladies is wise.

From the OED:

Cyclone:

1848. A term for all atmospheric disturbances in which the wind has a circular or whirling course.

1856. A hurricane of limited diameter and destructive violence.

Hurricane:

1555. One of the violent wind-storms or cyclones of the W. Indies.

Probably in the 16th century. Maybe before but not before 1492 though.

Hurricane which is a Carrib word for Hurricane or rather Hurricane is the word Urican adopted by Europeans.

It was given an official description by Beaufort but it is based on the standard rule of thumb for sailers in his day so it was in use prior to the Board of Trade accepting his scale.

That cyclones were known to be circular (though east) winds, comes from the analysis of a ship's log that survived being caught in one in the 19th century. But any inhabitant of any country that has them would know from the damage, that they were circular in nature.

@ Martin

By Anonymous Coward

Posted Monday 12th May 2008 11:24 GMT

"almost always weak pathetic affairs "

Eep!!! Not sure tempting Fate and the Ladies is wise.

Surely that should be "Fate" and "The Lady"

Too hot for a coat today...

Aren't the French rather rubbing their noses in it by sending their aid on the Mistral?

Used to call these juxtaposition cockups "Widdiecombes" (sp?)

To have the comment about people loosing their homes, however, that;s a true editorial fuck up

"almost always" in this instance includes the possibility for the occasional horrendously windy 1987-type event, famously not predicted by Michael Fish "An old lady phoned me asking if a hurricane is on the way- don't worry, there isn't... ".

I seem to remember a similar storm last year as well- I was stuck for hours when one of the very large direction signs on the M42 unhelpfully blew off its mountings and crashed down upon the carriageway.

In any case, I retract the words "almost always" and shall replace them with "often", or possibly "usually". :-)

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Of 2 roadside billboards in town here where I work.

The first was for the Lottery, and was of a REALLY HUGE BIG FAT MASSIVE (get the picture) person, with some tiny writing about winning the lotto.

RIGHT next to it (almost impossible to differentiate) was a sign for Macdonalds, next turn the left.

I don't have a photo of it, but it was up for a few months.

Unlucky, mostly.

Is it written anywhere on the McD's advert "Supersize me !!" ??

@Martin - you were right originally. They are almost always weak, pathetic things !! It's when the windspeed get to about 100 mph that one starts to get a trifle worried and windspeeds of 150 mph are definitely not unheard of !!

I was in HK once when it was hit directly by a big typhoon. The eye actually passed right over my flat. There were two tall buildings in its path that was supposedly typhoon-proof. One lost some 60% of its windows and the other lost some 70% of its windows, smashed and then sucked out by the vortex. The good news was that the more damaged building was the tax HQ and LOTS of filled-in tax return forms were sucked out and turned to mush. There was general rejoicing at that news !!

Maybe "tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good" but this trifling, 120 mph wind blew some people some good !!