Things you were always Kurious to know but never really bothered to find out #1: How Are Cyclones Named?

Starting with this article, we are starting this new section in which we will answer some of the questions that you ponder about every now and then ....but were either too lazy to look up or could not get any definite answer, so here's presenting:

"Things you were always Kurious to know but never really bothered to find out"

#1-How Are Cyclones Named?

I began wondering about this question when one day while i was watching Times Now, and read the headline....Cyclone Phet might hit Gujarat, emergency warning given to the habitants...(although now it has diverted, thank god..!)

Phet, what an interesting name...!

The decision to give these short and often attention-grabbing names over the North Indian region was taken collectively by 8 countries, namely: Bangladesh, India, Maldieves, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Oman and Thailand in the year 2000.

For this purpose a meeting of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) & United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) was held which laid down the naming convention for cyclones.

Groups of countries in other parts of the world also devise a similar convention for naming cyclones.

Each country had given a list of 8 names, hence a comprehensive list of 64 names was prepared. It was also decided in the meeting that each country would take turns to name the cyclone.

According to our very own, Met Dept. , it makes easy for the media to report about the cyclone and increases public awareness and preparedness against the calamity...

Cyclone "Laila" which had struck Tamil Nadu was named by Pakistan....the cyclone that followed Laila was "Bandu"-the name given by Sri Lanka.

And by the way, Phet is a "Thai" word meaning diamond....so Thailand gave this one...

So now you know, that the Met Dept--doesn't just name the cyclone according to any random name that comes to their mind, or on his/her spouse's or children's name.....They actually have a method to do this :D

You are free to contribute to this section by sending across other interesting stuff to enrich your knowledge and others as well...And as always, Be Kurious...!