
The terrible cyclone Nargis that swept in from the Andaman Sea onto the low-lying coastal territories of southern Burma this week killed tens of thousands and left more than a million homeless. It was an impressive storm, even when seen from Earth orbit. Here's more on the image above.
Here's more from AccuWeather,com. And here are some color images shot before and after the storm.
Cyclones are no different than the hurricanes we see each summer in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. But the geographic protocol that applies to these storms states that those that affect South Asia are to be called cyclones.
When they occur in the Atlantioc or the eastern Pacific, they're called hurricanes, and when they spin up in the central and western Pacific, they're called typhoons.
Each geographic locale within those larger regions also gets its own list of names. It's a bewildering array. And, each region sets its own rules.
Our hurricane names run in six-year cycles, so that a list repeats in the seventh year, minus any that have been retired because of their notoriety. The names also alternate between male and female, and mix the cultural origins of the region.
But the other lists draw from their own ethnic name traditions and cycle with different patterns.
Nargis is the sixth name on List 2 under the Northern Indian Ocean category. The next cyclone out there will be Abe, followed by Khai Muk. Go figure.
Our first three storms this season will be Arthur, Bertha and Cristobal.
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