HYDERABAD : Hudhud is the Arabic name of Hoopoe bird, which is the national bird of Israel. There has been a practice of naming cyclones in North America and Europe since 1953. Naming of cyclones began in South Asian and Middle East only after 2002.
An international panel on tropical cyclones, led by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a Geneva-based agency of the United Nations, has decided to name the cyclones that occur in South Asia and Middle East after forming a committee of eight countries. India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand are the members in the committee that decides the names of cyclones occurring in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Each member country suggests names for cyclones in these seas. The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) which issues cyclone warnings to these eight countries maintain a list of names contributed by each member country.
Every time a cyclone occurs, a name is selected in the order of the names already submitted by each country to the committee.
Cyclones named in the recent past are: Helen (Bangladesh) Lehar (India), Madi (Maldives) and Na-nauk (Myanmar). Hudhud is named by Oman.
NAMES AVOID CONFUSION
IMD officials say storms are named to provide ease of communication between forecasters and people regarding forecasts and cyclone warnings. Cyclonic storms can often last a week or 10 days. Hence, more than one cyclone can be occurring in the same region in this period. At such times, cyclone names can avoid confusion over which storm is being referred to. Earlier, cyclones were named based on logic. After that, feminine names were given to storms. Meteorologists later decided to call the storms using names from a list arranged alphabetically.
