Hurricane Irma has killed dozens of people and injured many more since the record-breaking storm roared over the French Caribbean islands. With its powerful winds having topped 185 miles (295 kilometers) per hour, Irma is the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the US National Hurricane Center based in Miami.

The Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin suffered the full fury of the storm. Rescuers on the French side said at least eight people died and some 95 percent of homes were destroyed. The Netherlands and France both sent troops and medics to help with rescue efforts.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Barbuda was a "scene of total carnage." Officials on the tiny two-island nation said it will seek international assistance. He further reported that about half of Barbuda's 1,800 population were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered damage, many of them destroyed.

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said about two-thirds of the island's 3.4 million inhabitants lost electricity in the storm. Shelters have been set up for about 62,000 people whose homes were destroyed.

Irma crawled across Cuba's northern coast, bearing down on the island nation as a Category 5 hurricane. It left thousands of homes, businesses and hotels flooded. The hurricane's storm surge topped Malecon, the iconic seaside boulevard in the capital of Havana. Cuba is often hit by hurricanes that strike the Caribbean.

Irma made US landfall in Key West, then again on Marcos Island on the US state of Florida's Gulf Coast. The storm brought several tornadoes, which leveled homes in the eastern city of Palm Bay. In Miami, hurricane-force winds brought down two cranes. State authorities have vowed a swift response to aid victims of the hurricane and cleanup its devastation.

Although Georgia and South Carolina avoided the worst of Irma's destructive path, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency after 340,000 were left without electricity and four people died. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one the world's busiest airports, was forced to cancel some 800 flights on Monday.

The destructive storm also left other victims in its wake, namely marine wildlife. The hurricane caused water levels to rise and fall much quicker than normal, leaving some animals, like this manatee, behind to die on land.

Irma follows hot on the heels of Hurricane Harvey which devastated large swathes of Texas and Louisiana in late August. Before Irma made landfall in the US, two other storms, Jose in the Atlantic Ocean and Katia in the Gulf of Mexico, were upgraded to hurricane status. Weather forecasters believe Jose could still pose a threat to the continental US.

Residents along Bangladesh's coast are being moved to safety as one of the strongest cyclones in years strikes the region. Millions of people had to be evacuated from low-lying regions along the Bay of Bengal on May 19. But plans are complicated by the coronavirus precautions. Maintaining social distancing is nearly impossible.

On May 14, Typhoon Vongfong slammed the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rains, destroying the city of San Policarpo in the eastern province of Samar. At least five people died and more than 91,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Typhoons are not unusual in the Philippines at this time of year. But the COVID-19 outbreak lockdown measures are exacerbating the situation.

Hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone are actually three names for the same phenomenon. Along the North American coast they are called hurricanes, in East and Southeast Asia they are called typhoons, and near India and Australia they are called cyclones. But despite the different names, they develop in the same way.

Tropical storms develop over oceans when the water temperature is at least 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). As the warm water evaporates and condenses, the air around it heats up and drags cooler air upwards, creating powerful winds.

The Earth's rotation causes the air stream to move around the eye of the storm, which can be up to 50 kilometers wide. This area is nearly completely free of clouds and wind.

When a tropical storm hits a coastline, it becomes weaker due to the lack of warm water. In Australia, "Marcia" was soon downgraded to a category one storm, while "Lam" weakened after striking near Brisbane. Masses of water from the sea often cause the worst damage - as seen here in China after Typhoon Nanmadol in August 2011.

Hurricane Sandy was one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean. It caused waves of up to 4 meters high, fires, power outages and broken dykes. Sandy arrived with winds at speeds of more than 145 kilometers per hour. Cuba, New York and New Jersey were particularly affected.

Tornadoes however, are non-tropical whirlwinds that can occur anywhere a storm is brewing. Local temperature differences force warm air upwards and cold air down, and a column of warm air rotates upwards at an increasing velocity. Tornadoes are usually only a maximum of 1 kilometer in diameter.

As the warm air rises, it forms a funnel, the main characteristic of a tornado. Inside the funnel, the speed of the air can be tremendous - up to 500 kilometers per hour. Tornadoes are the fastest whirlwind type of weather phenomenon.

A tornado can leave a trail of destruction several kilometers long. In the US Midwest, tornadoes occur several hundred times a year, as dry, cold air from the north hits damp, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. It's different in other countries - in Germany, for example, tornadoes occasionally occur along the coast.