The first storm this year will be called Damrey, which means elephant in Cambodian. History of storm naming M ilitary weather forecasters began giving women's names to significant storms during WWII, then in 1950 the World Meteorological Organization agreed to an alphabetical naming system, using the military's radio code. The first named Atlantic hurricane was Able in 1950. The new list, approved by the U.N. Typhoon Committee, is actually five lists, each of which would rotate into use once every five years. There are 28 names on each list.
Typhoons are identical in nature to hurricanes.
Both are considered to be cyclones by meteorologists. The U.S. contributed 10 names of Palauan, Marshallese, and Chamorro origin. A sampling of names on the list include Longwang, Man-yi, Rusa, Sonca and Kajiki. The ez science newsletter tips you off to the latest cool science news, by e-mail. Hurricane news more news Earth .