The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday released a new list with the names of 169 tropical cyclones that are likely to emerge over the north Indian Ocean, including the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.
The IMD is one of the six Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) set up across the globe, along with five regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) that are given the task of issuing advisories and names of tropical cyclones.
IMD issues advisories regarding upcoming tropical cyclones to 13 member nations, including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the UAE and Yemen.
“The tropical cyclones forming over different Ocean basins are named by the concerned RSMCs & TCWCs. For North Indian Ocean including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, the RSMC, New Delhi assigns the name to tropical cyclones following a standard procedure,” IMD said in its official release.
The requirement for a fresh list of tropical cyclones was tabled during the 45th session of WMO/ESCAP, held in September 2018. The session was hosted by Oman.
IMD chief M Mohapatra in September 2019 presented the final list which has been approved recently during the subsequent meet that was organized in Myanmar.
The list contains the names of 13 cyclones for the 13 member countries out of the total 169 names. The names of cyclones that may emerge in the future in India are Gati, Tej, Murasu, Aag, Vyom, Jhar, Probaho, Neer, Prabhanjan, Ghurni, Ambud, Jaladhi and Vega, the report said.
Some other names incle Biparjoy, Arnab and Upakul. The list also includes names such as Nisarga for Bangladesh and Nivar for Iran.