B) Tropical cylones names

B1) How are tropical cyclones named?
B2) How are tropical cyclones names chosen in the Southwest Indian Ocean ?
B3) When was the earliest tropical cyclone named ? The latest ?
B4) What happens to the name of a tropical cyclone if it moves from an area of responsibility to another one ?
B5) What are the upcoming tropical cyclone names ?

Subject B1) How are tropical cyclones named?

• The Southwest Indian Ocean tropical cyclones were first named during the 1960/1961 season.

• From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet (Able-Baker-Charlie-etc.), but in 1953 the US Weather Bureau switched to women's names. In 1979, the WMO and the US National Weather Service (NWS) switched to a list of names that also included men's names.

• The Northeast Pacific basin tropical cyclones were named using women's names starting in 1959 for storms near Hawaii and in 1960 for the remainder of the Northeast Pacific basin. In 1978, both men's and women's names were utilized.

• The Northwest Pacific basin tropical cyclones were given women's names officially starting in 1945 and men's names were also included beginning in 1979. As of 1 January 2000, tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific basin are now being named from a new and very different list of names. The new names are Asian names and were contributed by all the nations and territories that are members of the WMO's Typhoon Committee. These newly selected names have two major differences from the rest of the world's tropical cyclone name rosters. The names by and large are not personal names. There are a few men's and women's names, but the majority are names of flowers, animals, birds, trees, or even foods, etc, while some are descriptive adjectives. The names will not be allotted in alphabetical order, but are arranged by contributing nation with the countries being alphabetized.

• The North Indian Ocean region tropical cyclones are named as of 2006.

• The Australian and South Pacific region (east of 90E, south of the equator) started giving women's names to the storms in 1964 and both men's and women's names in 1974/1975.

Subject B2) How are tropical cyclones names chosen in the Southwest Indian Ocean ?

Subject B3) When was the earliest tropical cyclone named ? The latest ?

The earliest named systems were in August 1965 (Anne and Brenda), but they were very weak systems (likely tropical disturbances or depressions), and September 1965 is more likely the month with the earliest name according to current name criteria. The latest first name was given to the tropical cyclone Anacelle on February the 8th, 1998.

Related to the end of the cyclone seasons, the earliest last name was given on February the 17th, 1977 to the tropical cyclone Hervea, but this should rather be the tropical storm Elinah (January the 11th, 1983) as system Fely has been wrongly named in June 1983. The last name has been given to tropical storm Gritelle on June the 10th, 1991, as Odette in July 1971 do not fill current criteria.

Subject B4) What happens to the name of a tropical cyclone if it moves from an area of responsibility to another one ?

If a tropical system named on the South-East Indian Ocean (SEIO, Australian or Indonesian areas of responsibility (AoR)), crosses the 90E and moves to the west (over the South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO), i.e. RSMC La Réunion's AoR) with a minimal stage of moderate tropical storm, it will be renamed with a name of the SWIO roster. During 48 hours, for continuity reasons, the system will have the two names joined as NewName ex-OldName (for example, Ariel ex-Lee for the first SWIO 20072008 cyclone season system, developed and first named over the Australian AoR). Beyond 48 hours, the system will only keep the SWIO name.

On the other hand, for a named system coming from the SWIO and crossing the 90E, the Australians and Indonesians will use the SWIO name. The Australians an Indonesians use the names given to TCs by other centres. If Ariel came from the west they would stick with the name Ariel. If Lee went west, became Ariel and then returned to their AoR they would call it Ariel-Lee.

Subject B5) What are the upcoming tropical cyclone names ?

INDIAN OCEAN TROPICAL CYCLONE NAMES

Starting with the 2008/2009 season, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Tropical Cyclone Warning Centers have consolidated their three different name lists into one unified listing, given below.
If a named cyclone moves into the Australian regions from another warning center's area of responsibility, that previously assigned name will be used instead of one selected from this list. Names will be assigned in the order below (A-Zed) then the next list will be used, irrespective of year.

The name is given sequentially from list A. The list B is only used to substitute the names from the list A. Each substitution will be added at the bottom of the list A to respect the alphabetical order.

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE TROPICAL CYCLONES NAMES

For over a half-century (since at least 1945) the military weather forecasters, initially members of the U. S. Navy and later also from the U. S. Air Force, have named tropical cyclones forming in the Northwest Pacific basin. The names utilized were almost exclusively English feminine names through 1978, but beginning in 1979 men's names were used with women's names in an alternating fashion. Also, starting in 1963 the meteorological service of the Philippines (now known as PAGASA) began assigning Filipino women's names ending in "ng" to tropical depressions and cyclones forming in or passing through PAGASA's area of warning responsibility. In 2002 a new naming scheme was adopted by PAGASA (see below).
Beginning on 1 January 2000, tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific basin are named from a new and very different list of names. The new names are Asian names and were contributed by all the nations and territories that are members of the WMO's Typhoon Committee. The new names will be allotted to developing tropical storms by the Tokyo Typhoon Centre of the Japanese Meteorological Agency which is the RSMC for the basin.
These newly selected names have two major differences from the rest of the world's tropical cyclone name rosters. One, the names by and large are not personal names. There are a few men's and women's names, but the majority are names of flowers, animals, birds, trees, or even foods, etc, while some are descriptive adjectives. Secondly, the names will not be allotted in alphabetical order, but are arranged by contributing nation with the countries being alphabetized. Fourteen nations or territories contributed ten names each for a total of 140 names. The first 42 names on the roster are:

PAGASA names
(Philippines Atmospheric Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration)

Since 1963 PAGASA has independently named tropical cyclones forming in the Philippines' AOR--from 115E to 135E and from 5N to 25N (except for a portion of the northwestern corner of the above region).
Even though the Philippines contributed ten names to the international list of typhoon names, PAGASA still continues to assign their own names for local use within the Philippines.
It is felt that familiar names are more easily remembered in the rural areas and that having a PAGASA- assigned name helps to underscore the fact that the cyclone is within PAGASA's AOR and potentially a threat to the Philippines. Another consideration may be PAGASA's desire to assign a name when a system is first classified as a tropical depression. Since tropical and/or monsoon depressions can bring very heavy rainfall to the nation which often results in disastrous flooding, the weather service feels that assigning a name helps to enhance public attention given to a system.
Beginning with 2001 PAGASA began using new sets of cyclone names. These do not all end in "ng" as did the older names. Four sets of 25 names will be rotated annually; thus, the set for 2002 will be re-used in 2006. In case more than 25 systems are named in one season, an auxiliary set will be used.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC TROPICAL NAMES

Starting with the 2008/2009 season, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Tropical Cyclone Warning Centers have consolidated their three different name lists into one unified listing, given below.
If a named cyclone moves into the Australian regions from another warning center's area of responsibility, that previously assigned name will be used instead of one selected from this list. Names will be assigned in the order below (A-Zed) then the next list will be used, irrespective of year.