Amphan: How did this super-cyclone get its name

Amphan: How did this super-cyclone get its name

With gusty winds and heavy rain, super cyclonic storm Amphan hit near Sunderbans on the coast on West Bengal and also in many parts of Odisha.

Heavy rainfall was witnessed through the day in parts of Odisha and West Bengal where the cyclone made its impact. Millions of people were evacuated in anticipation of the storm in the two coastal states. The coronavirus and social-distancing processes made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities.

Amphan is the first tropical cyclone of the 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. It is the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal after the Odisha cyclone in 1999. But how Amphan got its name?

The super cyclonic storm got this name from Thailand even before it had shaped. It was projected back in September 2004 for storms over north Indian ocean. The word ‘Amphan’ is pronounced as ‘Um-pun’ which means sky.

Tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones are called by many warning centres to provide ease of announcement between forecasters and people regarding warnings. These names are meant to decrease misunderstanding in case of multiple storms in the same region. Names of these cyclones must also be culture-neutral easy to pronounce, should not exceed a length of more than eight letters and should not hurt anybody’s sentiments.

Amphan was the last name in the ongoing list and was to be taken up as the first name of the cyclone in 2020. Bangladesh named the previous cyclone in the region: ‘Fani’. ‘Hudhud’ was named by Oman whereas ‘Titli’ was suggested by Pakistan.

In the Indian Ocean region, eight countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives, Oman, Thailand, Pakistan started the course of giving the naming cyclonic storms from 2004.

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