Difference Between Tropical Storm and Hurricane

Natural disasters can be devastating no matter what form they are in. Most of them cause plenty of damage and usually strike without warning, as they occur all of a sudden and cannot be predicted. Prime examples of such disasters are tsunamis and earthquakes, which result in the loss of numerous valuable lives.

Compared to these sort of disasters, tropical storms and hurricanes are less threatening, as they don’t strike all of a sudden, and a particular area can be evacuated whenever such a calamity threatens to occur.

Despite the fact that they allow human beings some time to take cover, these storms and hurricanes cause plenty of financial loss and several countries, such as the United States of America, suffer a great deal from these sort of natural disasters.

Some people think that both these calamities are synonymous, but this is not the case. Although the difference between them is not too significant, it is enough to separate them from one another. Both these terms cannot be used to represent the type of same disaster, and there are a few dissimilarities between them which one should be aware of.

First of all, one should be aware of the fact that tropical storms and hurricanes both fall under the same category, as they are both tropical in nature. However, their impact is completely different, and it can be understood by knowing what causes them.

All such storms start with a tropical depression, which is caused due to the low pressure of air over a certain area of the ocean. There is no name for a tropical depression, but they are given numbers like 1, 2, 3 or 4.

When a tropical depression grows stronger due to the low pressure of air over the ocean, it turns into a tropical storm. For this, it needs to gain a minimum speed of 39 miles per hour, and can reach up to 73 mph.

On the other hand, hurricanes are larger forms of tropical storms, and their speed starts from 74 mph. There is no maximum limit for them and they can grow stronger as they travel from place to place.

Another difference between the two is that hurricanes are spiral in shape and form a clear eye as they grow larger; tropical storms, however, don’t form any such shape.