Naming Philippine typhoons

MANILA, Philippines - Years from now, you would probably tell your sons and daughters how Ondoy tore houses down to pieces, how Reming wiped out assets and properties, and how Yolanda took the lives of thousands of people. Ever wonder why and how these tropical storms are named?

Since 1963, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has been assigning local storm names for everything from a typhoon to a tropical depression in the monitored area from 115E to 135E and from 5N to 25N. PAGASA is also the entity that raises public storm signal warnings as deemed necessary.

Despite the naming system used by the World Meteorological Organization’s Typhoon Committee, which uses numbers instead of names, Philippines’ weather bureau has continued their tradition of naming storms, following the American practice. This is because it is presumed that local names are easily remembered and noticed by the local islanders of the Philippines.

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. Currently, the list  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.

Here is the list of names of the typhoon that will land on the Philippine territory this year.

Agaton
Basyang
Caloy
Domeng
Ester
Florita
Glenda
Henry
Inday
Jose
Katring
Luis
Mario
Neneng
Ompong
Paeng
Queenie
Ruby
Seniang
Tomas
Usman
Venus
Waldo
Yayang
Zeny

These are the auxiliary names:

Agila
Bagwis
Chito
Diego
Elena
Felino
Gunding
Harriet
Indang
Jessa