Actually, cyclones ARE another name for hurricanes - I post this directly, not changing the context one bit.
In meteorology, a cyclone is the rotation of a volume of air about an area of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are responsible for a wide variety of different meteorological phenomena such as tropical cyclones and tornadoes. Because of this, most weather forecasters avoid using the term cyclone without a qualifying term.
Tropical cyclones (also known as tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons) are cyclones which form over warm (generally tropical) ocean waters and draw their energy from evaporation and condensation. They are characterized by a strong area of low pressure at the surface and an area of higher pressure aloft. Tropical cyclones are associated with strong thunderstorms, high winds, and flooding.
In North America, tornadoes are sometimes described as cyclones because they involve powerful winds around a low-pressure vortex. However, they differ from other cyclones by their very local nature; most cyclones are massive storms, while tornados are comparatively small but extremely powerful. Tornadoes occur on too local a scale for the Coriolis effect to determine the direction of rotation; for this reason tornado winds sometimes flow anticyclonically, or opposite the direction dictated by the Coriolis effect.