The Name Game

Monday October 19, 2009

I have been anxiously watching the weather reports for the Philippines. It appears another strong typhoon has formed and is tracking its way towards this beleaguered island. I find it difficult to monitor storms in this part of the world (especially the Philippines) because often the same storm will be assigned two very different names. I became intrigued as to why this was so and did a little research. I want to share the information with you and see if you can understand it because honestly I am still having some trouble comprehending.

Since January of 2000 all tropical cyclones which form in the Northwest Pacific basin have Asian names which are chosen by the members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Typhoon Committee. The contributing nations are Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Lao PDR, Macau, Malaysia, Micronesia, Philippines, RO Korea, Thailand, U.S.A., and Vietnam. The names are not used in an alphabetical sequence but instead in the order of the the contributing nation. When it is time to name tropical storms the Japanese do the name choosing at the Tokyo Typhoon Centre. The Asian names are usually not personal names. Instead the storms can be named after food, trees, flowers, animals, or even adjectives.

The name game becomes even more confusing when the storm is in the Philippines. The Philippine Weather Bureau names all weather disturbances, tropical depressions, tropical storms, and typhoons with local names. So in the past month they have been hit by Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy and Typhoon Parma/Pepeng. The Philippine Weather Service regard tropical depressions as extremely dangerous due to the flooding these systems produce. They report that a storm system with a familiar name is easier to remember and draws more public attention especially in the rural parts of the country. The Philippine's storm names are reused every 4 years. So it is possible for there to be another Typhoon Pepeng in 2013.

As I said in the beginning, I am still having some trouble comprehending this convoluted naming process. However I do think they got the perfect name for Typhoon Lupit/Ramil which is now headed towards the Philippines. Lupit is the Filipino word for cruel.

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