The tropical cyclone, Cyclone ORSON - (280km/h+ winds and a central pressure of 905hpa it remains one of Australia's biggest storms) I lived through in April 1989 in the North West of Australia was said to have had the energy of four hundred 20 megaton nuclear bombs - but how they come to the conclusion is way beyond me.

What I do know is I saw the destructive force of Mother Nature that night and it was awesome - the sound, the damage and the flexibility of window glass, I still cant get over how far glass can bow without breaking !! - it did made me realise that how insignificant we are when push comes to shove with good old Mum Nature.

But like nihil said, the energy in this storm was measured over a huge distance over a period of 24 hours - the other, the energy is released in the blink of an eye and very localised. So the question should probably be, which stores and releases more energy and in which case - Mother Nature comes out on top - again !!.