Monday, July 25

Nomenclature problems

According to the Hurricane Research Division at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained surface winds of more than 74 mph is named differently depending on where it is:
  • "hurricane" in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E
  • "typhoon" in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline
  • "severe tropical cyclone" in the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E
  • "severe cyclonic storm" in the North Indian Ocean
  • "tropical cyclone" in the Southwest Indian Ocean
And if it crosses one of those lines, the name changes. Maybe they're not highly populated areas, but isn't this awfully messy? I'm awfully fond of "typhoon" (cf. Mandarin taifeng 颱風), because it sounds so exotic. Of course that means it'll never catch on.

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