I’ve always wondered what the difference is between a Tropical Cyclone, a Typhoon, a Hurricane, a Tornado and a Twister; so I checked my dictionary and here’s what I, honestly, got…
Tropical Cyclone: an area of low pressure with heavy rain and circular winds, up to 350 kilometres per hour, around a central area of about 30 kilometres in which the air is relatively calm.
Typhoon: a word, which originates from two Chinese words, meaning, ’Big’ and ‘Wind’. See Tropical Cyclone.
Hurricane: a strong wind of at least 120 kilometres per hour. See Tropical Cyclone.
Tornado: an extremely intense tropical cyclone with a strong spiral upward force, which follows a narrow track and is caused by the meeting of two air masses of different temperatures.
Twister: an unreliable, tricky person.
I reckon he must be a very unreliable and tricky person because he stole Dorothy’s house and moved it from Kansas to Oz. Australia had an horrific tropical cyclone named, Tracy, that wiped out Darwin city in the Northern Territory at Christmas time in about 1974. When everyone sobered up they wondered what the hell had happened and put it down to the evils of mixing beer and rum.
Australia also experiences a much lesser known phenomenon called, Willy-Willies. These are a great deal smaller than cyclones and don’t get the honour of being given a name such as, Tracy. The only name they get is, Willy-Willy, because they’re very-very small-small and, once up and spinning, are no threat to anybody.
Some people chase tornadoes, and the like, in order to study and film these climatic events, others chase them simply for a free adrenalin trip or because they can’t afford an overseas holiday. Experts advise, if you’re ever caught in a cyclone, you should place your head between your knees and then kiss your ass goodbye.
Cheers, vicplume.com
Tags: australia, cyclone, darwin, hurricane, northern, plume, territory, tropical, twister, typhoon, vic
