cyclone
Other forms: cyclones
A cyclone is another word for "tornado" or other types of violent, spinning storms. It was a cyclone that uprooted Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," and her little dog Toto too.
In the midwestern part of the United States, a cyclone is a tornado. But ask a meteorologist and he'll tell you that technically a cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm that forms over a warm ocean, specifically in the South Pacific. Tropical cyclones are actually much bigger than tornadoes: a small cyclone could be 100 miles across, while a monster tornado would only be about a mile across.
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(meteorology) rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure center; circling counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southernantonyms:anticyclone(meteorology) winds spiraling outward from a high pressure center; circling clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southerntype of:
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a violent rotating windstormtypes:hurricanea severe tropical cyclone usually with heavy rains and winds moving a 73-136 knots (12 on the Beaufort scale)tornado, twistera localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the groundtyphoona tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceanssupertwisterthe most powerful tornado which can create enormously devastating damagewaterspouta tornado passing over water and picking up a column of water and misttype of:windstorma storm consisting of violent winds
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Stormy Weather: A Tempest of Meteorological Terms
Vocabulary lists containing cyclone
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Physical geography will be a breeze once you master this list of terms related to Earth's physical features. You'll review climate and weather, landforms and bodies of water, biomes and ecosystems, and the geological structure of the Earth — and that's just the tip of the iceberg!