Yinxing, Toraji, Usagi, Man-yi…. These are names that Catanguangans will not soon forget. Unless, that is, they remember this unprecedented series of tropical storms as Marce, Nika, Ofel, and Pepito.
Worldwide, there are several agencies that assign names to storms, so by the time tropical cyclones reach the Philippines, they already have two names.
Unofficially, the naming of tropical storms began with an eccentric Australian meteorologist in the 1890s who named storms after women and politicians he didn’t like.
Officially, assigning names to typhoons began for strategic purposes during World War II. Military strategists at the time found it easier to refer to storms by name rather than geographical coordinates.
In 1945 in Honolulu, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center began officially monitoring storms and assigning names in the Western Pacific. The naming system used by the JTWC used only female names – names of wives and girlfriends – in alphabetical order, and the list was revised every year with a new list of female names beginning with the letter “A”.
However, facing pressure from feminists in the United States who asserted that the naming system was sexist, the system in the United States was revised in 1979 to include male names.
Locally, the Manila Meteorological Observatory began assigning names to storms in 1963, also using only female names.
However, after a destructive series of storms in 1970, President Ferdinand Marcos abolished the MMO in 1972 and replaced it with PAGASA.
PAGASA continued the practice of using female names until 1999. The change occurred when PAGASA introduced a public naming contest, which allowed for a mix of male and female names starting in 2000. The system now includes gender-neutral names as well.
PAGASA’s naming system for tropical storms is purposefully designed to make them more memorable for the public. There are four criteria – familiarity, alphabetical order, public participation, and “retirement”.
As for familiarity, names are chosen to be easily remembered, particularly by local communities.
Also, storm names follow a 19-letter local alphabet, excluding some consonants, and starting with “A” for the first storm of the season. There are four such sets of names, each containing 25 names, and these are reused every four years.
Regarding public participation, through contests the public can suggest names to PAGASA that reflect Filipino culture.
Finally, names associated with significant damage or loss of life are “retired” – that is, struck from the list – and replaced with new names starting with the same letter
Outside of the PAR, the office with the job of naming local tropical storms is the Japan Meteorological Agency, which is based in Tokyo and monitors and names storms in the Western Pacific.
It is one of eleven regional warning centers recognized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that contribute to storm naming.
Aside from PAGASA and the JMA, these include the National Hurricane Center in the United States, which names storms in the Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific; the Met Office in the United Kingdom and Met Éireann in Ireland, which name storms affecting the UK and Ireland; and KNMI in the Netherlands, which participates in naming local storms in collaboration with the UK and Ireland.
(Bryce McIntyre, PhD, resides in San Andres. He holds a doctoral degree from Stanford University , Palo Alto, California, USA)