Wizard of Oz - cyclone or tornado?

[AaronBarnhart]

Dr Doswell does Oz well:

http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Conference_papers/SELS96/WoO.html

 

[Paul Knightley]

A cyclone is a region of cyclonically rotating winds - thus, any low pressure area can be correctly titled, 'cyclone'. More specifically, cyclone is often used off the coast of Australia for tropical storms with winds of force 12 or more.

 

[Mike Johnston]

One common use of the word "cyclone" that's always intrigued me is with reference to the great storms that have struck Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) over the years. In general, I understand most of these references are with regard to tropical cyclones, which have included storms that have killed hundreds of thousands of people in that region. But, what is interesting is that worldwide lists of tornadoes that have killed 100 or more people, 20 out of a total of 43 were in Bangladesh. So, what are these Bangladesh "cyclones"? Unlike other areas in eastern hemisphere, the word typhoon is never used, it's always "cyclone." Are these storms like any other tropical storm in the world, or is there something different and special to that geography that gives rise to storms that have tropical origins/characteristics but are tornadic in terms of impact?

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

I was watching the winds episode of a violent weather documentary recently (sorry can't remember what channel) and they had quite a lot of footage of tornado damage in Bangladesh which they described as tornadoes. This is a useful link although goes up to the year 2000, about tornadoes in Bangladesh. http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/bangladesh.htm

Have you noticed that on a GPS the voice over reports a "twisting storm" not a tornado or cyclone?