Romancing cyclones

One thing that I have never understood was that why are cyclones and typhoons given female names. So far I haven’t had the pleasure of encountering a Mr.Cyclone, Have you? They are always, Olivia, Julia and Katherina and now Nargis.

Someone told me cyclones also have names like Charlie but I am inclined to believe that is short for Charlotte.

All this gives a misleading impression that cyclones are a bunch of pretty young things . Your estimate of the damage they cause is somewhat diluted because of the female names. You get the odd feeling that the victims of cyclone are a bunch of lucky chaps who are being hugged., caressed , and kissed by a lovely maiden.

Why on earth can’t we call a cyclone say Osama.? Even Mr.bin Laden , I am sure, will not object to it. He would be quite flattered and probably deceive himself into believing that the extent of damage caused by the cyclone is mainly because it was named after him.

Or if you don’t know how the al Qaeda chief would react, play it safe by calling the cyclone Saddam. Dead men, don’t protest. But If Saddam had been alive and had some clout when it comes to naming cyclones, he would have called one George.W.Bush. Or if he had believed that the cyclones were feminine, he would have named one Condolezza.

If Indian opposition politicians are asked to name a cyclone, I am sure, they would have called it Sonia. Imagine this newspaper headline:: SONIA KILLS 10,000

And as for the weather office guys we must admire them. When they predict it will be a sunny day it rains. Whey they say temperatures will come down, the mercury soars. Yet they never admit defeat. They go on as blithely as astrologers, whose predictions never come true.. That is with respect to their profession. When it comes to their hobby they prefer naming cyclones.

Now that Nargis has had her fill, these guys are waiting for their next cyclone. They already have a name even before the cyclone has arrived. They are calling it Abe.

Is Abe a male name or a female name? Going by the practice of giving female names to cyclones it definitely must be a woman's name, Abe Lincoln be damned..

And I have a small doubt. What if the cyclones are really male?. The meteorologists with their penchant for constantly getting the weather wrong. could have mixed up the gender too.

That could explain at least why the cyclones are so destructive. It is not only because they are so macho and want to show all and sundry who is the boss, they are irked by people getting their gender wrong. .

Dear Mr.Balajee,

HAHA.Naughty naughty. SONIA KILLS 1000

Here looks like Sonia will sue u and kill u.You live in the same city as hers, u know.

Cant stop laughing.Where the hell do u get the ideas from .Regards.kamal

Kamalji, you reduced the toll, it was 10,000 and not 1,000. Yes I can run into that danger and that is worse than a tsunami.

Dear Balajee
Good write up on cyclones, that too they are romancing........
This is already been discussed in Kamaji's thread sometime back.
Naming Cyclone after Sonia is hilarous, as we don't know what destruction cyclone will cause when it comes same way we don't know what destruction will sonia will cause from behind, both looks calm but furious when they come on news.............hahaha

Dear Aruna,

See U are thje witness i wrote first and Balajee copies me.Copycat Mr Balajee
But balajee's is better and indepth.And what u said about Sonia,is very true.HAHA.Arjun Singh knows how she is when she is furious.Regards.kamal

Soney pe Suhaga......(Sona-Kamalji....Suhaga-Balajee)

Dear Balajee Sir,
The write up was indeed hilarious but apart from that I would like to point that there are cyclones in male names too.
Forecasters give names to tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, to avoid confusion when more than one storm is being followed at the same time. Forecasters formally begin naming Atlantic Basin in 1950, using names from the international phonetic alphabet of the time: Able, Baker, Charlie, and so on. They started using female, English-language names in 1953, and switched to alternating male and female names in 1979. They also began using French and Spanish male and female names at this time.
When a cyclone does massive damage, that specific name never used to name another cyclone.The first three male names used -- Bob, David and Frederick -- have all been retired because they did tremendous damage. Frederick and David were retired because of the damage they did in 1979. Bob was retired after Hurricane Bob hit New England in 1991.

The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee selects the names for Atlantic Basin and central and eastern Pacific storms.
For the Atlantic Basin and the eastern Pacific, six lists of names are used, with each list used again - minus any retired names - six years after it was last used. The WMO's regional committee selects the names to replaces those that are retired. Each year the names start with the "A" storm on that year's list, no matter how many names were used the previous year.
Hawaiian names are used for central Pacific storms. Here, a revolving list of four sets of names is used and each storm that forms gets the next available name on the list, regardless of the year.
Similar WMO regional committees are involved in selecting names for other parts of the world, but not all nations involved go along with these names.
While most naming systems use common first names, in various languages, nations around the western Pacific began using an entirely new system for naming typhoons in 2000. Each of the 14 nations that typhoons affect submitted a list of names for a total of 141 names. The names include animals, flowers, astrological signs and a few personal names.
Regards.

Hi Balajee,

Cant stop laughing.

புயலை பெண் என்றதனால் கோபம் கொண்டு வீசுகிறாளோ?

Nice to read. Expecting more from you.

Hi Meeta,

Thanks for explaining about the naming cyclones.
Really interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing with us.

Originally Posted by Moonbeams

Soney pe Suhaga......(Sona-Kamalji....Suhaga-Balajee)

Dear Moonbeams.

HAHA.You have one sense of humour.Regards.kamal