Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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Back in the 1980s, my junior high school changed its nickname to the "Cyclones," matching the storm theme of the crosstown junior high rival Whirlwinds and the high school Hurricane.

But what is a "cyclone?" The image created to represent our school was a golden tornado with a mouth and eyes. A certain weather-geek ninth-grader knew our administrators didn't have a good meteorological grasp on what a cyclone should be.

There are several correct answers to the question, "What is a cyclone?"

n A cyclone is, in the Indian Ocean, exactly the same thing as hurricanes and typhoons elsewhere. This is what hit Myanmar over the weekend, killing tens of thousands.

n All tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes by any name are broadly categorized as tropical cyclones.

n All low-pressure systems are cyclones. This includes run-of-the-mill low-pressure systems -- those big L's on a weather map -- that help produce our rain and snow, as well as more intense systems such as nor'easters. Cyclones feature rising updrafts and rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, spun by the Earth's rotation. They rotate clockwise south of the equator.

n Tornadoes in the 1800s and early 1900s were often called cyclones in historic accounts. Almost all tornadoes are in fact cyclones, or counterclockwise-spinning updrafts, but a tiny percentage rotate clockwise and are therefore anticyclones.

So there is a brief rundown of many things a cyclone can be. You can spin it any way you want.