In meteorology, a cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The largest low pressure systems are polar vortices and extra tropical cyclones of the largest scale (the synoptic scale). Warm core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also lie within the synoptic scale.

Types of Cyclones

1.Tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclones are what most people are familiar with because these are cyclones that occur over tropical ocean regions. Hurricanes and typhoons are actually types of tropical cyclones, but
they have different names so that it’s clear where that storm is occurring. Hurricanes are found in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, typhoons are found in the Northwest Pacific.

We can also further describe tropical cyclones based on their wind speeds. Cyclones are categorized according to wind speeds and the damage they cause.
Category 1: Wind speeds between 90 and 125 kilometers per hour, some noticeable damage to houses and trees.
Category 2: Wind speeds between 125 and 164 kilometers per hour,damage to houses and significant damage to crops and trees.
Category 3: Wind speeds between 165224 kilometres per hour, structural damage to houses, extensive damage to crops and uprooted trees, upturned vehicles and destruction of buildings.
Category 4: Wind speeds between 225 and 279 kilometers per hour,power failure and much damage to cities and villages.
Category 5: Wind speeds over 280 kilometres per hour, widespread damage.

2. Polar cyclones

Polar cyclones are cyclones that occur in polar regions like Greenland, Siberia and Antarctica. Unlike tropical cyclones, polar cyclones are usually stronger in winter months. As you can see, these
storms really do prefer the colder weather! They also occur in areas that aren’t very populated, so any damage they do is usually pretty minimal.

3. MesoCyclone

Mesocyclone is when part of a thunderstorm cloud starts to spin, which may eventually lead to a tornado. ‘Meso’ means ‘middle’, this can be considered as the midpoint between one type of storm and the other. Tornadoes all come from thunderstorm clouds, but not all thunderstorm clouds make tornadoes. In order for a tornado to occur, part of that cloud has to spin, and though you can’t really see this happening, this is the intermediate, or ‘meso’ step from regular cloud to dangerous spinning cloud running along the ground.