Did a "typhoon" hit Joplin, Missouri?...

Apparently some Malaysian web sites think so!

http://www.mmail.com.my/content/73373-msians-typhoonhit-missouri-are-safe

A typhoon is a tropical storm of cyclonic force and peculiar violence occurring in the Western Pacific and the China Sea.

A cyclone is a system of wind circulating about the center of a relatively low barometric pressure advancing clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the northern, while a tornado is a whirling wind of exceptional violence occuring in the Tropical Atlantic and Africa, usually associated with thunderstorms and accompanied by a pendulous funnel-shaped cloud marking its path with greatest destruction.

A hurricane, in the otherhand is a tropical cyclone originating from the West Indies with a force of the 12th or highest degree moving at the speed of more than 75 miles an hour.
Source(s):
The New International Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080508051036AAAYTbJ


"typhoon" is of chinese/japanese derivation: "tai" (great/strong) + "fu" (wind)

a lot like my town did after Katrina. Whatever you call it, it's horrifying.

It was certainly as bad a tornado I've seen in a long while, and I'd almost drove into one on a freeway when I lived in Iowa.

I'm also still a little concerned about my uncle who lived only an hour to the east of Joplin south of Springfield. A few of my cousins also live around that area too. We haven't talked to him yet on how they'd come through from it. Think we'd heard already from other family members if it was severe though.