How cyclones are named: Yaas and Tauktae

While the cyclone is making news in the country, their names and their unlikely meaning for a voracious cyclone have been trending majorly among Indians.

After Maharashtra and Gujarat being majorly hit by cyclone Tauktae, it seems like Mother Nature has now shifted its focus to eastern coastal belts of Odisha and West Bengal with a newly emerging cyclone named Yaas. A ‘Red Alert’ has been issued for Odisha districts like – Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, and Balasore and ‘Orange alert’ for Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Cuttack, Khorda, and Puri.

While the cyclone is making news in the country, their names and their unlikely meaning for a voracious cyclone have been trending majorly among Indians. So how do these cyclones get their names? To the surprise of many, these names are already decided years before the cyclones are born.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) maintains an approved list of names of cyclones that form in the northern Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea region. After each country from the 13 member countries panel of United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) send its suggestions of tropical cyclone names, the WMO and ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones decides on a final list of names.

The 13 countries panel includes – Bangladesh, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, The United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, who in alphabetical order get to pick a name, from the finalised list, for the next cyclone, to form in the region.

Like we know, cyclone Tauktae was named by Myanmar. The word translates to a ‘highly vocal lizard’. So after Tauktae, it was Oman’s Yaas in the list next. Yaas is a Persian word, meaning a flower – Jasmine.

Why are cyclones given a name?

Naming a cyclone makes it easier for people to remember, identify individual cyclones while removing confusion, create awareness of its development and disseminate warnings for community preparedness. As opposed to numbers and other scientific terms as cyclone names, generic names are easier for the understanding of general public and the media.

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