Here’s how cyclone ‘Fani’ was named — and what it means

The Cyclonic storm ‘Fani' is expected to make a landfall on the Odisha coast between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Friday with a wind speed ranging up to 180 km per hour. The government is making special efforts to control the potential damages by mass evacuation of over 800,000 people.

The name of the Cyclone ‘Fani’, pronounced as ‘Foni’ was suggested by Bangladesh. It means ‘Snake’ or ‘hood of snake’.

The practice of naming the cyclones began when authorities found it difficult to use technical names to send warning signals to people. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has a well-defined process to select the name of each cyclone.

India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan and Thailand send names of tropical cyclones developing in the North Indian Ocean to the regional committee. Presently, each country has suggested eight names for cyclones occurring in future. The name ‘Fani’ was decided from a list containing 64 names.

Bangladesh also named Cyclone Ockhi that caused severe damages in Kerala. The Cyclone Titli, that hit Andhra and some parts of Odisha last year was named by Pakistan.

India also has suggested many names including Agni, Akash, Bijli, Jal, Lehar, Megh, Sagar and Vayu.

Here are some other names given by the eight countries :