The largest typhoon on record is the Super Typhoon Tip, which formed in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean in the fall of 1979. It would have covered half of the United States if it had hit land, as it reached 1,380 miles wide.
Typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones are all the same type of storm; they are differentiated by where they form. In contrast, Hurricane Sandy, the largest hurricane to develop in the Atlantic basin, reached 1,040 miles across at its peak. Nonetheless, size does not always equal strength; the deadliest tornado to hit the United States was the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people.
