Typhoon? Cyclones? Hurricanes? What's the Difference?

This article caught my eyes: How Typhoon Wipha got its name.

But before that... there's always one thing I could not quite differentiate - how different are typhoon, cyclones and hurricanes? From the Hongkong drama, we often heard about the locals, especially the boatpeople are always worried over the typhoons and it means rain - very very heavy downpour... but there are also other times from the documentaries, they talked about hurricanes, that normally sweep across the US!

Read HERE for more information.

Have we ever wonder how these disasters got their names? and why they are given such fanciful names?

Points from the Sunday Times (23 Sep 2007):

• Centuries ago, people in the Caribbean islands (map) begin naming tropical cyclones after Catholic Saints
• Australian Clement Wragge is the first meteorogist to name hurricanes at the end of the 19th century. He started using Greek letters before switcing to women's names. (Read more about Australia's first weathermen; Reason to name hurricanes)
• Naming of hurricanes after women's names became popular in the 1930s-40s. US Army Air Corp and Navy meteorogists often name them after wives and girlfriends.
• In 1953, US weather Bureau decided to use female names exclusively.
• In 1962, naming of tropical cyclones of South-west Indian Ocean begins.
• The Australian and South Pacific region starts giving women's names to storms from 1964.
• The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the National Weather Service in US switch to a list that include men's names as well.
• The WMO draws up a list of names for tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific basin that includes names from Asia and other parts of the world.