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About Donald Rosenfeld
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Any questions (except private) answered from the 1st grade level on up pertaining to any aspect of Weather. I am a 20 year member of the American Meteorological society and a long time forecaster of eastern United States snow storms and Hurricanes.

You are here: Experts > Science > Weather > Meteorology (Weather) > cyclone

Topic: Meteorology (Weather)

Expert: Donald Rosenfeld
Date: 5/7/2008
Subject: cyclone

Question
What is a CYCLONE?? Is there a difference in a cyclone and a tornado??

Also.....I'm getting married July 19th.....please tell me that we won't need an umbrella!!!

Answer
Hi Betsy

There are four different cyclones- all are low pressure areas (meaning that the atmospheric barometric pressure is lower than surrounding area pressure).

1. A tornado is a small scale system.

2. A cyclone is a low pressure area that extends for several hundred to as much as a thousand miles in width and bring rain or snow to wide areas.

3. A hurricane or tropical storms is a cyclone with a warm core in the center differing from the normal low pressure area described in # 2 above.

4. In some parts of the world (like the Bay of Bengal) hurricanes are called, instead, cyclones.

For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone

http://www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm

http://www.hurricaneknowledge.com/

As to your wedding:

The date is too far in the future for an accurate forecast.

Forecasts of between 4 and 7 days can be given accurately depending on the season and location.

In the winter season, the storm systems move faster thus making accuracy fall off after a few days.

Summer is easier with accuracy as much as several days attainable.

The location factor has to do with the geographic proximity to the storm track; southern locations typically are more distant from storminess.

You can check back with me when we get close to the event and I'll be happy to give you a forecast; or, you can use this link which will give you a computer generated forecast:

http://www.weatherknowledge.com/long_range_forecast.html

or, to get a general idea of likely conditions way in-advance, try climatology at:

http://www.microclimates.org/diurnal/index.html

and, to get an idea of what NOAA thinks for the month involved, take a look at:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/people/wwang/cfs_fcst/images/usPrecMon.gif

and

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/people/wwang/cfs_fcst/images/usT2mMon.gif

Hope this helps!

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