In meteorology, a cyclone is the rotation of a volume of air about an area of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are responsible for a wide variety of different meteorological phenomena such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Because of this, most weather forecasters avoid using the term cyclone without a qualifying term.

Structure of Cyclones

The center of a cyclone is a low-pressure region. Pressure gradient force, from high- to low-pressure reasons, causes high winds around these regions. Wind flow around a large cyclone is almost invariantly anticlockwise, in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise, in the southern hemisphere, due to the Coriolis effect. Anticyclonic large storms are extremely rare on Earth, though Jupiter's Great Red Spot storm is anticyclonic.

More about Cyclones

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