Cyclone Kyarr, the super cyclonic storm over the east-central Arabian Sea, is making its way to the Oman coast and has caused heavy rainfall in three states located on India’s west coast — Goa, Maharashtra and the north-coastal districts in Karnataka. On Monday, weather warnings were in place in Kerala as well. But how and why was Kyarr, which has become the first Super Cyclone in the Arabian Sea in the past 12 years, named so?
The name Kyaar was given by Myanmar. In 2000, eight countries came together to assign names to the tropical cyclones that originate in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
It was then decided that each country will submit a set of names which will be used one by one to name the cyclones. The framing of the list began in September 2004 and later 64 names, eight from each country, were finalised:
The names will be used sequentially, column-wise. The first name will start from the first row of column one and continue sequentially to the last row in column eight. Thus, the cyclone after Kyarr will be named Maha, and then the one after that will be named Bulbul.
The basic concept behind the names was to aid the quick identification of storms, since names are easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. While many of these names may not necessarily mean something, they often are the names of women or geographical features; for example, Vayu, given by India, means 'wind' in Hindi. However, there are some preconditions set — the name cannot be culturally sensitive nor can they convey an unintended and potentially inflammatory meaning. It has to be simple, with lesser syllables and should be easy to pronounce.
The naming of storms also makes it easier for the media to report on tropical cyclones and it also heightens interest in warnings and increases community preparedness. These names will be used sequentially, and they are not rotated every few years, like the ones in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific lists are.
Now that the list drafted in 2004 is due to be exhausted, the eight countries will soon meet to draft a new list. The eight countries have submitted eight names each for consideration and the World Meteorological Department will soon release a new list.