Tauktae - What's in the Name?

Cyclone Tauktae which hit Goa,Mahrashtra, Gujarat and left an impact on Haryana and Punjab is identified as “a very severe cyclone”. But did you ever wonder how are the cyclones named? There is a history behind the naming of cyclones.

Before formal naming of tropical cyclones, the cyclones were named after saint’s feast days on which they occurred, places and objects. The credit for first using the personal name for a cyclone is given to Queensland Government Meteorologist, Clement Warrage which were used between 1887 and 1907. The naming of weather system later was not used after Warrage retired until it was used again near the end of World War II for Western Pacific.

At present, tropical cyclones are officially named by one of eleven warning centers. The naming is important when multiple cyclones occur in the same ocean basin and it also makes it easy to identify for the disaster management and the general public. The cyclones are named by World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Panel on Tropical Cyclones. Thirteen countries are included in the panel which are India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, UAE, the Maldives, Oman, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Iran and Yemen. These 13 countries name the cyclones in the region.

The name Tauktae was suggested by Myanmar. It’s Burmese word meaning is “highly vocal lizard”. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) maintains rotating lists of names which are appropriate for each Tropical Cyclone basin. If a cyclone is particularly deadly or costly then its name is replaced by another name.