Hyderabad: The situation in Andhra Pradesh has been intensifying as Cyclone Hudhud gains speed. After a previous prediction of landfall by noon by the Indian Meteorological Department, it is not expected earlier between 10:30 to 11:30 according to TV reports.
But why name a cyclone? And why name it Hudhud?
Cyclones and storms were originally recognised by numbers and technical terms that only a select few people, who studied the storm, understood.
Eventually they were given names for quick and better recognition as also to give out warnings of the storm. Although these names were earlier chosen on random basis, meteorologists eventually started using an alphabetic pattern.
Thus, a storm with a name that begins with ‘A’ would probably have been the first storm that year.
By mid-1900s these storms were given feminine names.
In 1953 the National Hurricane Center kept a list of names and since then the storms have been named from this list. They are now maintained and updated by the World Meteorological Organisation
As for Cyclone Hudhud, the storm has been named after the national bird of Israel and the name was suggested by Oman.
The Indian Meterological Department (IMD) issues cyclone advisories to eight countries. Each of these eight countries gets a chance to name the cyclone based on a list of names that goes to all the eight countries.
India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand provide names for cyclone in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
