With the catastrophic cyclone that continues to devastate Myanmar(formerly Burma), perhaps some may be wondering what the difference in a hurricane, typhoon, cyclone, and tornado may be(By the way, as I am writing this, a tornado is moving through Oklahoma City about 70 blocks north of me.

Actually, what is being described as a "cyclone" in Myanmar is one type of cyclone--a "tropical cyclone" that can cause huge devastation when it comes inland. Different areas of the world identify these cyclones by various names; but, actually they are all the same. In the Atlantic, we traditionally call them hurricanes; in the Pacific, meterologists identify them as typhoons; in the Indian Ocean, weather gurus title them cyclones.

Tornadoes form inland devastating, as a rule, smaller land areas.



The most devastating of these storms traditionally form in the oceans surrounding the Asian countries.

Deadliest storms mostly in Bengal

Storms in the Bay of Bengal account for seven of the 10 deadliest hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones in recorded history, as documented by Weather Underground. The casualty figures are notoriously difficult to pin down, but here is the list:

Bhola cyclone, Bangladesh (East Pakistan), 1970. Death toll estimated at 150,000 to 550,000.

Hooghly River cyclone, India and Bangladesh, 1737. Death toll: 350,000.

Haiphong typhoon, Vietnam, 1881. Death toll: 300,000.

Coringa cyclone, India, 1839. Death toll: 300,000.

Backerganj cyclone, Bangladesh, 1584. Death toll: 200,000.

Great Backerganj Cyclone, Bangladesh, 1876. Death toll: 200,000.

Chittagong cyclone, Bangladesh, 1897. Death toll: 175,000.

Super Typhoon Nina, China, 1975. Death toll: 171,000.

Cyclone 02B, Bangladesh, 1991. Death toll: 140,000.

Great Bombay Cyclone, India (from the Arabian Sea), 1882. Death toll: 100,000.

Depending on how the final death toll is estimated, Cyclone Nargis may well find its way onto the top-10 list. On Wednesday, a U.S. diplomat told The Associated Press that the toll could top 100,000.

Other deadly disasters

To put those figures into perspective, other types of natural disasters have caused far more casualties throughout history. China's 1931 Yangtze River flood rates as the very deadliest on the list, with estimates of the death toll ranging from 850,000 (or even lower, according to the Chinese government) to as many as 4 million people.

The deadliest earthquake in recorded history is China's Shaanxi earthquake of 1556, which is said to have killed 830,000 people. The Asian tsunami of 2004 also rates a place on the top-10 list for the deadliest natural disasters, with the toll currently estimated at more than 230,000 people.

The 1900 Galveston hurricane, which killed about 8,000 people in Texas, is considered the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.