Winds of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour ripped roofs off houses and downed trees in Port Vila in the island nation of Vanuatu. Category 5 Cyclone Pam hit the capital on Friday, March 13, 2015. Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said the cyclones that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change. "We see the level of sea rise. [We see] change in weather patterns."

President Lonsdale dubbed Cyclone Pam "a monster" that had devastated the country. "It’s a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu. After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out." He said 90 percent of the buildings had been destroyed in the capital alone. So far, six people were confirmed dead and 30 injured from the cyclone.

The cyclone devastated numerous countries across the South Pacific. "At least nine nations have experienced some level of devastation including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Papua New Guinea," a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at least 60,000 children have been displaced or affected by the cyclone. According to UNICEF, hundreds of children in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati are also affected. "It felt like the world was coming to an end," said UNICEF's Alice Clements, one of the organization's staff members, who was in Port Vila when the storm hit.

For years, small island nations such as Kiribati (pictured here) have been trying to combat climate change. Seychelles President James Michel said on Monday that Cyclone Pam was "a clear manifestation of climate change" and called on the international community to "wake up" to the impact of global warming.

The inhabitants of the most vulnerable islands have been trying to secure coastal areas to prevent the tides from washing away the soil. While these measures assist in the short term, more needs to be done to tackle the root cause of rising sea levels.

"Climate change has exacerbated the severity of natural disasters and [their] frequency, that's worsening the impacts on different communities," the president of island nation Kiribati, Anote Tong, said. Climate change and disasters are related, he added. Scientists, however, say it's impossible to attribute single weather events like Cyclone Pam to climate change.

"We must especially help the poorest and most vulnerable people," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the aftermath of the cyclone. Prevention of natural disasters is a global task, he added. "Climate change is intensifying the risks for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in small island developing states and coastal areas." A new climate treaty will be negotiated later this year.

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.