Cyclone Arnab has intensified into a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ over the Bay of Bengal and is braced to make landfall along the eastern coast of India on Wednesday, October 18.
However, during such extreme weather events, a common question arises: Where does a cyclone get its name, and how exactly does the global naming process work?
Why was the cyclone named Arnab?
The name 'Arnab' was officially proposed by Bangladesh.
Quick answers to key questions
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QUESTIONS
Arnab was the next available name on the North Indian Ocean cyclone list and was proposed by Bangladesh. In Bengali, “Arnab” means “ocean” or “sea”; the name does not indicate the cyclone’s intensity or where it will make landfall.
The IMD, based in New Delhi, assigns names to cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. The names come from a pre-approved list submitted by 13 participating countries and are used in sequence.
A system is named after it reaches cyclonic-storm strength, with maximum sustained surface winds of at least 34 knots—about 62 kmph. Forming over the sea alone is not enough.
Short, distinctive names help avoid confusion, especially when multiple weather systems develop at the same time. They also make warnings, evacuation orders and public information easier to communicate.
No. Under the system described by the IMD, a name is permanently removed from the list after it is used.
According to the IMD's official cyclone naming list, the word "Arnab" translates to "ocean" or "sea" in Bengali. However, meteorological experts emphasised that the naming of a cyclone has nothing to do with its intensity, direction, or the specific country it is expected to hit.
According to IMD protocols, the name for any cyclone is simply the next available entry on a pre-approved, rotational list of tropical cyclone names designated for the North Indian Ocean region.
Therefore, even though Bangladesh contributed the name, the cyclonic storm is currently tracking toward the coastlines of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
How are cyclones named?
Globally, tropical cyclones are named by Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) and Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), according to the UN agency's guidelines.
For the North Indian Ocean region—which includes the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea—this critical responsibility falls on the IMD based in New Delhi.
The WMO mandates that the IMD serve as the RSMC for this geographical zone and officially assign names to developing weather systems once they reach a specific intensity.
According to the IMD, a weather system is not assigned a name merely because it forms over the sea; it must reach a maximum sustained surface wind speed of at least 34 knots (approximately 62 kmph) to be officially classified and named as a cyclonic storm.
How does the naming system work?
The formal naming protocol for the North Indian Ocean began in September 2004.
In April 2020, an official release by the Ministry of Earth Sciences detailed that the WMO/ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Panel on Tropical Cyclones expanded the operational list to include 13 participating nations: Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen.
According to IMD’s established framework, each of the 13 member countries submitted 13 names, resulting in a consolidated master list of 169 names. These names are arranged column-by-column in alphabetical order by the contributing countries and used in strict sequential order.
When countries propose these names, they must adhere to strict WMO guidelines. The panel mandates that the names must be short (a maximum of eight letters), easy to pronounce, and strictly neutral—meaning they must not hurt the religious, political, or cultural sentiments of any community.
Unlike the Atlantic hurricane system, where names of exceptionally destructive storms are retired and others are recycled, the North Indian Ocean system never reuses a name. Once a name is used, the IMD permanently strikes it from the list.
Why do we name cyclones?
Assigning short, distinctive names to cyclones is vital for effective crisis management, the WMO states. It eliminates the confusion of using complex technical geographic coordinates, especially when multiple weather systems develop over the ocean simultaneously.
According to disaster management authorities, a clear name makes it significantly easier for them to issue evacuation orders, for the media to report on the trajectory, and for the general public to understand and prepare for the impending danger.