New list of names issued for tropical cyclones over north Indian Ocean

A new list of 169 names for tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea has been issued, covering the 13 member countries of the WMO/Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Panel on Tropical Cyclones.

Worldwide there are six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) conducting tropical cyclone forecasting that are mandated for issuing advisories and naming tropical cyclones. The RSMC New Delhi provides tropical cyclone and storm surge advisories to 13 member countries, including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

WMO coordinates the naming tropical cyclones in order to help the tropical cyclone operational and scientific communities, disaster managers, media and general public to:

• identify each individual cyclone.
• create awareness of its development.
• Recognize a tropical cyclone easily
• Avoid confusion in case of simultaneous occurrence of more than one tropical cyclone over a region
• rapidly and effectively disseminate warnings to much wider audience

The previously used list dated back to 2004 and contained names proposed by then eight member countries of the Panel (Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.). The new list of names includes representation from five new member countries of the Panel, namely Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The following criteria were adopted for selection of names in the region:

1. The proposed name should be neutral to (a) politics and political figures (b) religious believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender,
2. Name should be chosen in such a way that it does not hurt the sentiments of any group of population over the globe,
3. It should not be rude and cruel in nature,
4. It should be short, easy to pronounce and should not be offensive to any WMO Member,
5. The maximum length of the name will be eight letters,
6. The proposed name should be provided along with its pronunciation and voice over,
7. The Panel reserves the right to reject any name, if any of the criteria above is not satisfied,
8. The finalised names may also be reviewed during the course of time of implementation with the approval of the Panel in its annual session, in case any reasonable objection is raised by any WMO Member both inside and outside the region,
9. The names of tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean will not be repeated. Once used, it will cease to be used again.

RSMC New Delhi press release is available here.

Details on tropical cyclone names are here.