‘Cyclone Asani’ Brewing In Bay Of Bengal: Who Named This Cyclone & What Does It Mean?

Bhubaneswar: After nearly two decades, the Indian Ocean will see a cyclone in the month of March. The low-pressure, which developed in Southwest Bay Of Bengal and Equatorial Indian Ocean last evening, is likely to take the shape of a cyclone storm by March 21 and head towards Bangladesh-Myanmar coasts with likely landfall on March 23.

“The system will become well-marked and lie Southeast of the Bay of Bengal and the South Andaman Sea and Nicobar Island by March 19 morning. It will gradually head in the north-northwestward near Andaman and Nicobar Islands, intensify into a depression on March 20 and develop into a cyclonic storm by March 21,” India Meteorological Department (IMD) DG Mrutyunjay Mohapatra informed on Wednesday.

If the system intensifies into a cyclonic storm, it will be called ‘Cyclone Asani’, a name is given by Sri Lanka. The name roughly translates to wrath in Sinhala. The system, however, is unlike to turn into a cyclone of high intensity. “It is likely to be a cyclonic storm of wind speed of 70 km to 80 km gusting to 90 km,” the IMD DG said.

Also Read: [Watch] Know What IMD DG Mrutyunjay Mohapatra Has to Say About ‘Cyclone Asani’, Its Landfall & Wind Speed

It is among the list of 169 storms listed by IMD in 2020. ‘Amphan’ was last in the list of names for cyclone complied in 2004 and a new panel of  India, Bangladesh, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen was formed in 2018 to decide the names of the future cyclones.

Nisarga was the first name in the list followed by Gati, Nivar, Burevi, Tauktae, Yaas, Gulab, Shaheen, Jawad and now, Asani.

Among these, India had proposed Gati (speed), Tej (speed), Marasu (musical instrument in Tamil), Aag (fire) and Neer (water) etc.

THE NAMING TRADITION

Cyclones and hurricanes that create havoc and destruction and even those that don’t, are often given such peculiar names. The names have always been amusing but ever wondered how these are chosen and why?

Cyclones were not identified by any name initially, but the tradition started with a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. The name given was Antje, as the hurricane ripped off the mast of bast of the same name. Any tropical storm reaching a sustained wind speed of 39 miles per hour was given some name.

Just so you are not confused, cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are all the same. Tropical storms are termed differently in different parts of the world. They are called hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the Pacific, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. Any storm, whose wind speed reaches or crosses 74 miles per hour, is classified as a cyclone.

HOW IT STARTED

Starting from the start of naming cyclones, people in the Caribbean islands would give storms some local names, all of which were based on the saint of the day from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. The Atlantics have been naming storms for the past few hundred years.

The Caribbean tradition continued till World War II. Post the war, forecasters and meteorologists started using female names to identify the storms.

The US weather service, in 1953, took the idea and created a new phonetic alphabet (international) of women’s names from A to W, except the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z in the pursuit of a more organised and efficient naming system.

THE CONTROVERSY

The idea of portraying women as destructive drew criticism. The protests led to the inclusion of male names for the storms since 1978. From then on, men’s names were introduced and they alternate with the women’s names under which, six lists are used in rotation.

WHO DOES IT

The naming of cyclones across the globe is a recent phenomenon. World Meteorological Organization is usually the apex body deciding the names. In India, or the storms arising in the Indian Ocean, the procedure of assigning names began in 2000. However, a set formula was agreed upon only in 2004 – the reason Odisha’s 1999 Supercyclone had no name. The names are given by the Indian Meteorological Department and the first tropical cyclone to be named was Onil, in 2004. It was a name given by Bangladesh.

The question as to why name a cyclone has quite an unexpectedly simple answer – for easy remembrance and tracking. It is easier to say ‘Cyclone Titli’ in 2018, than memorising the number of the storm’s longitude and latitude. Names are also helpful when there are more than one cyclones to track.

The use of short, distinctive names makes it less cumbersome. For the media, it becomes easier to report by using names. The names are also helpful in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

WHEN THEY RETIRE

The cyclones that cause widespread damage and deaths usually retire. It means these names are not used at least for 10 years. New names replace those. An annual meeting by the WMO Tropical Cyclone Committees strikes off these offending names from the list.

Once officially retired, done as a mark of respect to the dead, the names are replaced with a name of the same gender and beginning with the same letter. Since 1972, as many as 50 names have been struck off, including infamous ones like Haiyan (Philippines, 2013), Sandy (USA, 2012), Katrina (USA, 2005), Mitch (Honduras, 1998).

And no, the World Meteorological Organization never runs out of names! They have a long list of names contributed by different sections of the world, the nine regions. They are North Atlantic, Eastern North Pacific, Central North Pacific, Western North Pacific, North Indian Ocean, South-West Indian Ocean, Australian, Southern Pacific and South Atlantic.