There is no difference between a typhoon and a hurricane – it is just the different names that people in different parts of the world use to describe the same thing!  It really becomes fascinating watching the news sometimes when you are reading all about a hurricane, in this case hurricane Florence in the USA, and typhoon Mangkhut heading towards Hong Kong and mainland China at the same time in September.  The generic term that meteorologists need to describe them is a tropical cyclone. 

Basically tropical cyclones that are not too strong are known as tropical depressions, but once the speeds of the wind reached a sustained speed of 100km/h they are then either called a hurricane or a typhoon.  The north-west Pacific region refers to that same cyclone as a typhoon and if it originates closer to America in the central north Pacific or the eastern north Pacific or in the North Atlantic Ocean, then it is known as a hurricane.  All of this stems from the warm tropical oceans and almost always comes as summer in the northern hemisphere is winding down and the winds start cooling a bit and that is when you get into hurricane or typhoon season.

I was in Shenzhen, China on business when typhoon Mangkhut hit and was confined to my hotel for about 24 hours.  The winds were certainly ferocious, even though we were not in the direct path of the storm which was passing a little bit to the west of us.  The rain absolutely bucketed down and of course people who were not fortunate enough to be in secure buildings got injured and many died.  I do think however that we have seen, around the world, that the alerts get better than ever and the high numbers of deaths that used to be associated with these storms seem to be reducing in terms of the number of fatalities.  All you have to know though is the next time somebody starts talking about a cyclone or a hurricane that they are one and the same thing and that a typhoon is obviously in the Asian region.