Almost 16 years ago, cyclone Amphan was named by Thailand

New Delhi, May 20: Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan is expected to make landfall near Sunderbans on the coast on West Bengal and Bangladesh on Wednesday evening. It is currently a strong tropical cyclone over the Bay of Bengal threatening east India as well as Bangladesh.

It is the first tropical cyclone of the 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Amphan is the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 Odisha cyclone. But how did it got its name?

Well, the super cyclonic storm got this name from Thailand even before it had formed. It was proposed back in September 2004 for storms over north Indian ocean.

The word 'Amphan' (pronunciation: Um-pun), means sky, said Bajlur Rashid, meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).

It is the first tropical cyclone of the 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Amphan's origins can be tracked back to a low-pressure area situated over the Bay of Bengal on April 29.

A red message issued by the IMD is currently in effect for the coasts of Odisha and West Bengal.

Meanwhile, forty-one teams of the National Disaster Response Force, including seven reserves, have been deployed in West Bengal and Odisha in view of the impending super cyclonic storm 'Amphan', its chief S N Pradhan said on Tuesday.

This is the second super cyclone over the Bay of Bengal in two decades. The cyclone is expected to make landfall on the West Bengal coast on Wednesday afternoon between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya island in Bangladesh.

How Amphan was named?

The World Meteorological Organisation maintains rotating lists of names.

In the Indian Ocean region, eight countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, and Thailand) started the process of giving the naming cyclonic storms since 2004.

'Amphan' was the last name in the current list and was supposed to be taken up as the name of the first cyclone to occur in the region in 2020.

Before this, the last cyclone in the region, 'Fani', was named by Bangladesh. 'Titli' was suggested by Pakistan while 'Hudhud' was named by Oman.

To track cyclone Amphan, please visit this link. The website quite similar to IMD website shows real-time updates of the cyclone and provides all the latest information.