What is the difference between a tornado and a hurricane?

Both tornadoes and hurricanes are characterized by extremely strong horizontal winds that swirl around their center and by a ring of strong upward motion surrounding downward motion in their center. In both tornadoes and hurricanes, the tangential wind speed far exceeds the speed of radial inflow or of vertical motion.

Hurricanes always and tornadoes usually rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The Earth's rotation determines this direction for the storms' rotation in each hemisphere. Local winds are sometimes able to cause a tornado to form that spins in the opposite direction from the typical direction for that hemisphere.

The most obvious difference between a tornado and hurricane is that a hurricane's horizontal scale is about a thousand times larger than a tornado. In addition, hurricanes and tornadoes form under different circumstances and have different impacts on the atmosphere.

Tornadoes are small-scale circulations, that are rarely more than a few hundred feet across when they touch the ground. Most tornadoes grow out of severe thunderstorms that develop in the high wind-shear environment of the United States Central Plains during spring and early summer.  Many tornadoes form when the large-scale wind flow leads to a violent clash between moist, warm air traveling north from the Gulf of Mexico and cold, dry, continental air coming from the United States Northwest. Tornadoes can also form in many other locations and from other forcing factors. For example, a hurricane making landfall may trigger many tornadoes to form.

Tornado wind speeds may reach 100 to 300 mph and cause havoc on the ground, but tornadoes typically last only a few minutes and rarely travel more than 10 or 20 miles along the ground. Tornadoes have little impact on storms that spawn them or collectively on the global circulation of the atmosphere.

Hurricanes, on the other hand, are large-scale circulations that are 60 to over 1,000 miles across. Hurricanes form near the Equator, generally between 5 and 20 degrees latitude, but never right on the Equator. Hurricanes always form over the warm waters of the tropical oceans and generally where the sea-surface temperature exceeds 26.5°C (76°F).

A hurricane may travel thousands of miles and persist over several days or weeks. During its lifetime, a hurricane will transport a significant amount of heat up from the ocean surface and into the upper troposphere or even lower stratosphere. Even though hurricanes form only sporadically, they do affect the global atmosphere's circulation in measurable ways, although this is still an active area of research.

Extreme Weather News

Jump to a Year

2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013

2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003

2002

GPM Sees Heavy Rain In Menacing Hurricane Florence

Last Friday Florence was a sheared tropical storm but on Saturday vertical shear lessened and Florence started to get better organized. Today hurricane Florence is rapidly strengthening. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts that Florence will be a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds peaking at 130 kts (~150 mph) on Wednesday when it is over the open Atlantic well southwest of Bermuda. The NHC predicts that Florence's winds will decrease slightly to 125 kts (144 mph) as the hurricane threatens the southeastern United States on Thursday September 13, 2018. OVERPASS 9/9/18: View

Tropical Storm Gordon's Rainfall Measured With IMERG

Tropical Storm Gordon became the seventh named system of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season on Monday September 3, 2018. GORDON became more intense as it moved through the eastern Gulf Of Mexico but didn't quite make it to hurricane force before landfall. GORDON was a strong tropical storm with winds of about 70 mph (~ 61 kts) when it hit southeastern Mississippi on September 5, 2018. GORDON continued to produce rainfall as it moved inland. Weakening GORDON spawned a tornado near Picayune, Mississippi on Thursday September 6, 2018. Today, tropical depression GORDON is still responsible for

GPM IMERG Adds Up Heavy Rains from Typhoon Jebi

Typhoon Jebi brought flooding to Japan and NASA’s IMERG estimated rainfall over the country and the surrounding region for a one-week period. The above image shows accumulated IMERG rainfall estimates over Japan and the surrounding region for the 1-week period from August 29 to Sept. 5, 2018 show rainfall amounts on the order of 100 mm (~4 inches, shown in red) or more covering much of the main island of Honshu and Shikoku in the south. Much of the band of rain oriented east-west across central Japan was due to a frontal system that brought rain to the area before Jebi made landfall. Super

GPM Sees Hurricane Florence Swirling In The Central Atlantic

Hurricane FLORENCE became more powerful over the past few days while moving through the central Atlantic Ocean. Wind speeds increased from tropical storm force to hurricane force on Tuesday. FLORENCE's maximum sustained winds were about 85 kts (98 mph) early today making it a category two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane wind scale. Hurricane FLORENCE is being steered toward the northwest by the Atlantic subtropical ridge. Early next week the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts that hurricane FLORENCE will have moved to a location southeast of Bermuda. The GPM core observatory

GPM Views Super Typhoon Jebi Twice

UPDATE 8/31/18 View Fullscreen in STORM Event Viewer Having peaked in intensity, Typhoon Jebi is a Category 5 Super Typhoon with maximum winds estimated around 142 knots. It is beginning an eyewall replacement cycle with a gap between the outer and inner eyewalls appearing somewhat in the DPR. The storm's strength is expected to fluctuate but remain well above Category 3 for the next two days before it turns northward toward Japan. It will likely have widespread impacts on Southern Honshu in around 4 days time, an area that has already struggled with rainfall, typhoons, and intense heat this