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Super-typhoon Haiyan is seen approaching the Philippines in this Japan Meteorological Agency handout image taken at 06:30 GMT (0130 EST) on Nov. 7. See more images.

MANILA—She may be known as Haiyan internationally, but the strongest tropical cyclone in the world so far this year is known in the Philippines as Yolanda.

For nearly two decades after World War II, the Philippines weather bureau relied on names issued by the U.S. Air Force weather squadrons in Guam to identify tropical cyclones. American military communicators assigned female names for storms sighted in the northern hemisphere and male for those in the south.

In 1963, the Philippines’ weather bureau started assigning local female names to tropical cyclones that entered its area of responsibility. The names are arranged according to the 19-letter local alphabet that starts with A and ends in Y. The first tropical cyclone of the season takes a name that starts with A. Over the years, the PAG-ASA has adopted other letters in English and added C, F, J, Q, V and Z, so that the list now has 25 names plus 10 auxiliary names in case more storms enter the country.


Four groups of names are listed to make sure none is repeated over a four-year cycle. Around 20 storms enter the Philippines a year, although not all make landfall. Super-typhoon Yolanda is the 24th cyclone to hit the country this year. In 1993 a record 32 typhoons hit the country.

The state weather bureau, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, or PAG-ASA, started retiring the names of destructive storms starting in 1979. Storm names are retired when they cause at least 1 billion Philippine pesos ($23 million) in damage or at least 300 deaths.  That means names such as Pablo, which last year killed more than 1,100 people, or Ondoy, which inundated the capital in 2009 and caused billions of pesos in damages, have been scratched from the list.

The list has also been revised several times since 1979 for various reasons. Now, they are no longer limited to female names, for example.

However, PAG-ASA only chooses Filipino-sounding names – not necessarily names of people – to they can be easily remembered and recalled. In 1998, the weather bureau held a contest to solicit potential typhoon names from the public. It eventually chose 140 names to comprise the four-year cycle.

Two more tropical cyclones are expected later this year, and they would be named Zoraida and Alamid. If more typhoons enter the PAG-ASA’s monitoring sphere later this year the first will be tagged Bruno, and then so forth down the list.

The latest list of names can be found here.


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