User:Jason Rees/Reaction


 * 36th Session - 2009 - Mr Abdul Rahim bin Salim Al-Harami, Permanent Representative of Oman with the WMO, commended the panels decision to name tropical cyclones and noted that national, regional and global media had picked up remarkably on Tropical Cyclones Gonu, Sidr and Nargis. He also suggested that the Panel considered devising a permanent and appropriate mechanism for updating the table of the tropical cyclone names.

Mahasen
During May 2013, the IMD named a deep depression: Mahasen, after the system had developed into a cyclonic storm. However, there were various protests over the name by nationalists and officials in Sri Lanka, who claimed that the cyclone had been named after King Mahasen. It was also claimed that it was wrong to name a cyclone after Mahasen, as he was a king who had brought peace and prosperity to the island nation. As a result Sri Lankan agencies referred to the system as a nameless cyclone and requested that international agencies do the same. The Sri Lankan Department of Meteorology subsequently publicly apologised for the naming of Mahasen and stated that the names "were merely proposed as Sri Lankan names and their selection did not have any basis, explanation or intention." The Met Department subsequently revised its list of submitted names and substituted the names: Priya, Asiri, Gigum and Soba with Ashobaa, Maarutha, Gaja and Pawan, while Cyclone Mahashen was later renamed Viyaru because of the controversy.