May 5th, 2008
Cyclone Vs. Tornado
While both tropical cyclones and tornadoes are atmospheric vortices, they have little in common. Tornadoes have diameters on the scale of hundreds of meters and are produced from a single convective storm (i.e. a thunderstorm or cumulonimbus cloud). A tropical cyclone, however, has a diameter on the scale of hundreds of kilometers and is comprised of several to dozens of convective storms.
Additionally, while tornadoes require substantial vertical shear of the horizontal winds to provide ideal conditions for tornado genesis, tropical cyclones require very low values of tropospheric vertical shear in order to form and grow. Tornadoes are produced in regions of large temperature gradient, while tropical cyclones are generated in regions of near zero horizontal temperature gradient.
Also, tornadoes are primarily an over-land phenomenon, as solar heating of the land surface usually contributes toward the development of the thunderstorm that spawns the vortex, although over-water tornadoes have occurred. But tropical cyclones are purely an oceanic phenomena. They die out over land due to a loss of a moisture source.
Lastly, tropical cyclones have a lifetime that is measured in days, while tornadoes typically last on the scale of minutes.
Tags: cyclone, tornado, vs
8 Responses to “Cyclone Vs. Tornado”
yeah, but it is more logical to say “tornado” instead of “waterspout” in the title.
you said: intresting that you had to come back to this, yet again.and hell…even the OP was satisfied with my first comment. did i hit a nerve with you, or something?”you seem to be taking a little too serious this discussion you and me are having over what would have been the more logical title for this post. I don’t know if you have been here at reddit for very long, but we redditors haggle over the particulars of minutia in the comment section to no end, so i don’t see why you are posturing yourself.your right, even “waterspout on the water” itself is redundant. But do you know what percentage of people know or think of tornadic things as anything other than “tornadoes”? Most people think of anything of that nature as “tornados.” I bet you that fewer people would have looked at this link if it was title “waterspout”. So there, you wanna fight?!
which is actually called a waterspout.
You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me.
How do you figure? A waterspout is a type of tornado. “A nonsupercell tornado over water”, to quote the link you provided.Regardless, really cool. I’d love to see one.
regardless of the scientific particulars (a tornado that does not touch ground is not called a “tornado”, it is called a funnel cloud, or in this case a waterspout is not a tornado) people think any sort of tornado as a tornado, so it is more logical to say tornado in the title. this link would be at a loss if it was titled “waterspout on the water”.
According to the site you just linked to, the jet won.