Tornados, cyclones and hurricanes

Tornado (Latin tonare, "to thunder"): violent whirling wind, characteristically accompanied by a funnel-shaped cloud extending down from a cumulonimbus cloud. Commonly known as a twister or cyclone, a tornado can be a few meters to about a kilometer wide where it touches the ground, with an average width of a few hundred meters. It can move over land for distances ranging from short hops to many kilometers, causing great damage wherever it descends. The funnel …

…heavy, especially in coastal regions. The strongest hurricane to hit the western hemisphere in the 20th century, Gilbert, devastated Jamaica and parts of Mexico in 1988 with winds that gusted up to 350 km/h (218 mph). Destructive hurricanes in recent U.S. history include Agnes (1972), with $3 billion in damage and 134 deaths, Hugo (1989), with more than $4 billion in damage and more than 50 deaths, and Andrew (1992), with an estimated $12 billion in damage, more than 50 dead, and thousands left homeless.