What is a typhoon?

Typhoon is actually a strong tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclone is a strong weather system that occurs in tropical ocean. Like a vortex moving forward in a flowing river, it rotates rapidly around the center and moves forward with the surrounding atmosphere. Like temperate cyclones, the airflow in tropical cyclones in the northern hemisphere rotates counterclockwise around the center, while in the southern hemisphere it is the opposite. The closer to the tropical cyclone center, the lower the air pressure and the stronger the wind.

Before 1989, the tropical cyclone with the maximum wind force above 8 near the center was called typhoon in China. A tropical cyclone with the maximum wind force 12 near the center is called a strong typhoon.

Since 1989, China has also adopted international classification standards, that is, when the maximum wind force near the center of a tropical cyclone is less than 8, it is called a tropical depression, and the winds of 8 and 9 are called tropical storms, and the winds of 10 and1are strong tropical storms. Only the tropical cyclone with the strongest wind near the center is called a typhoon.

From the above definition, it is not difficult to see that tropical cyclone is a general term for tropical depression, tropical storm, strong tropical storm and typhoon. However, due to the weak destructive power of tropical depression, traditional tropical cyclones generally do not include tropical depression.