tropical storms & hurricanes

have you ever wondered how and who decides what to name hurricanes and tropical storms? guess what? i have.

apparently there are several lists of tropical cyclone names. the lists vary region by region and are drafted a couple of years in advance. the lists are decided upon either the world meteorological organization or by national weather offices involved in the forecasting of the storms. Side note: for anyone who got television from spokane, washington (KXLY): i wonder if meteorologist steve mumm is a member of the WMO. i hope so. steve mumm put in his time.

so i was wondering why there weren't ethnic names for storms off the coast of north america. hurricane kenji, hurricane imran, tropical storm mohammad, tropical storm bhupinder? hmmm.

but i have learned that there are ethnically-diversely named storms in other parts of the world. india's contributions, for example, have been: Agni (fire), Akash (sky, or ether), Bijli (lightning; electricity) Jal (water), Leher (wave, billow or zephyr), Megh (thunder, dark clouds), Sagar (ocean or sea) & Vayu (wind, god of the wind).

so now we know. yay.