The process of naming a storm is the only most interesting thing in those dangerous situations. The same happened with Debbie which tore through parts of northeastern Australia this week.
Debbie started life as a tropical low off Queensland state, but formed into a cyclone just after Caleb – another weather system brewing off Western Australia – fizzled out.
World Meteorological organisation holds the responsibility to name a particular storm which should have carry valuable significance behind it.
The process started with naming the storm with female names then moved to the alphabetic list.
“The practice of naming storms (tropical cyclones) began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms,” the WMO website said.
Australia was the first country to switch to alternating between male and female names in 1975, according to its Bureau of Meteorology, and other areas have followed suit.
Currently, Australia uses 104 names in a system that started from the 2008-09 season.
The first of the season of 2016-17 was Yvette. Before Debbie came Caleb, Blanche and Alfred, with the next tropical cyclones set to be Ernie, then Frances, Greg, and Hilda.
Australians looking to add to the arsenal of storm names are welcome to make suggestions, the weather bureau said, although they might have to wait a while until their nomination gets used.
“We currently have enough names on the list to last for at least the next 10 years,” said the bureau’s senior meteorologist Andrea Peace.
