
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday released a new list containing 169 names of future tropical cyclones that would emerge in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
IMD, one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMC) in the world, is mandated to issue advisories and name tropical cyclones in the north Indian Ocean region. Globally, there are six RSMCs and five Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres performing similar duties.
The Met office issues tropical cyclone advisories to 13 member countries of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)/ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) including India, Bangladesh, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The need for preparing a fresh list of tropical cyclones was tabled during the 45th session of WMO/ESCAP, held in September 2018 and hosted by Oman. In September last year, IMD chief M Mohapatra presented the final list during the subsequent meet held in Myanmar. This list was approved recently.
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The new list features 13 names each, submitted by all member nations. Since one name, Amphan, from the previous list has remained unused, it will be considered among the names in the new list. After Amphan, the names of the three cyclones would be Nisarga (Bangladesh), Gati (India) and Nivar (Iran).
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