Tropical Cyclone, Hurricane, Typhoon

A tropical cyclone is a rotating storm that forms over warm seas, above 26 °C. It draws its energy from ocean evaporation. It spins counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern.

It is called a hurricane in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, a typhoon in the Western Pacific and a cyclone in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific. The danger comes from wind, torrential rain and above all storm surge, a rise of the sea that floods coasts.