Cyclone Remal to hit Bengal: How and why are cyclones named?

Realising the importance of an effective cyclone warning and disaster mitigation in the North Indian Ocean region (comprising both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal), WMO came together in 1972 to establish the Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC). The PTC originally comprised eight member countries — Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sultanate of Oman and Thailand.

In its twenty-seventh session held in 2000 in Muscat, Oman, the PTC agreed to assign names to the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. After each country in the panel sent its recommendations, the PTC finalised its list and started naming cyclones in the region in 2004. The PTC, in 2018, expanded to include Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

In April 2020, a list of 169 cyclone names were released — 13 suggestions each from the 13 countries. It is this list that is currently being used to name cyclones.

How the naming convention works

There are some basic guidelines that countries needed to follow while sending in their proposals. These include ensuring that the proposed name

• is neutral to (a) politics and political figures (b) religious believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender;
• does not hurt the sentiments of any group of population over the globe;
• is not very rude and cruel in nature;
• is short, easy to pronounce, and not offensive to any PTC member;
• is at most eight letters long;
• is provided with its pronunciation and voice over; and
• is not repeated (not before, not after).

The list of proposed names arranges the countries in alphabetical order, and lists all the names suggested by them alongside. Then these names are allotted to any cyclone, which takes place in the region, on a rotational basis regardless of which country proposed it.

For instance, the first cyclone after the list was named Nisarga (Bangladesh’s name choice), which hit Maharashtra, followed by Gati (India’s choice, hit Somalia), Nivar (Iran’s choice, hit Tamil Nadu), and so on (refer to the tables 1-3).

After all the names of one column are exhausted, i.e. one name suggested by each country has been used, names from the next column are chosen, again starting from Bangladesh (for instance, after Mocha, the next cyclone was named Biparjoy).

After this list is exhausted (which might take more than a decade, maybe even decades), a new list will be submitted by  PTC members.