Super typhoon Haiyan is the most dangerous typhoon that struck the Philippines. From the time it ever hit the country up to the point of identifying how much destruction it caused the Philippines, many were curious with the difference among typhoon, cyclone and hurricane.

Typhoon, Cyclone, Hurricane: What Are Their Main Differences?

The Guardian noted all three of these are just varying terms for a weather situation depending on the place. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "hurricane" is the phenomenon that happens within the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific. "Typhoon" is used for those in the Northwest Pacific while "cyclone" is the term for those in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific.

A meteorologist and co-founder of Weather Underground, Dr. Jeff Masters explained that super typhoon Haiyan is not just the strongest tropical cyclone to make a landfall in the entire history of the world. It also ranked fourth in the list of strongest tropical cyclones in history.

Officially though, all three weather phenomena are known as tropical cyclones, TheStar wrote.

Other Facts Worth Discovering

Yahoo News Australia reports that a particular storm is considered a tropical storm once it reaches 63 km/h. At 119 km/h, it is already considered as cyclone, tropical cyclone, typhoon or hurricane. It comes with five categories according to its strength with 5 as the highest. Super typhoon Haiyan was at Category 4. Even Australia has its own system for analyzing the storm strength. Its names are also handled by the World Meteorological Organization, deciding on the ones that will be most familiar for every region. Super typhoon Haiyan is called Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippine local setting.

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