Karachi: The reason behind suggesting the Storm Name as “Nilofar”.

Chief meteorologist in Karachi Tausif Alam, who monitors the weather conditions in Sindh and Balochistan said that the name of a new tropical cyclone is determined by consecutive cycling through lists of names submitted by countries which are member of five tropical cyclone regional bodies.

Cyclone ‘Nilofar’ was named by Pakistan as it was its turn in an alphabetical order. Pakistan is included in the list of Northern Indian Ocean Names and other member countries are Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Mayanmar, Oman, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Six lists are used in rotation and storms are identified using names from an alphabetically arranged list. Earlier the use of women’s names for cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere and men’s names for cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere were practised. Later the names began alternating.

Previously Oman had named Cyclone ‘Hudhud’ which smashed India’s coast earlier this month. Sri Lanka’s turn is next on the list with the name Cyclone ‘Priya’, according to the alphabetical arrangement.