Category 2

Category 3

Category 4

Category 5

Introduction

Hurricanes happen seasonally, with the season starting June 1 and ending November 30 in the Atlantic Ocean. However in the Pacific Ocean these storms are called typhoons and develop between May and October. Both storms are technically tropical cyclones, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  describes as rotating, organized systems of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and have a closed, low-level circulation. The Japanese Meteorological Agency scale is used to rate typhoons in the Western Pacific. The categories are tropical depression, tropical storm, severe tropical storm, typhoon, very strong typhoon, and violent typhoon. The Saffir-Simpson scale rates hurricanes from category 1 to category 5.

A hurricane or typhoon is a low-pressure storm that forms in the tropics and may be accompanied by thunderstorms and severe winds. In the Northern Hemisphere, a counterclockwise circulation of winds is present. The difference in the name is due solely to where they are located; in the Atlantic they are hurricanes, in the Pacific they are typhoons. The characteristics of the storms are the same. Severe winds and rain can cause extensive damage. Typhoons are more common due to the larger area of warm tropical water and other atmospheric patterns. Generally, if conditions in the west are good for typhoons conditions in the east are not good for hurricanes, and vice versa.

 Scales

Typhoons and hurricanes are measured using different scales. The Saffir-Simpson scale is used for hurricanes and is as follows.