BMG to Operate Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre

Recently when I visited Bali we had a few weeks of intensely thunderous weather. Quite out of context for that time of the year. Sure, there is the usual rainstorms at the end of the wet season, but none like the lashing Bali [and a lot of Java received] at the time. Of course the surfers loved it because great swells were generated. And, as always, Australia was blamed for having cyclones off the north-west coast of Western Australia. It happens every year. Now, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) in Indonesia is to commission a Tropical Cyclone Warning Center (TCWC).

When the TCWC has become operational, it will be Indonesia`s responsibility to name all tropical storms happening to its south, and issue warnings and they will be internationally authorized to name cyclones. This means they can give names to the cyclones and would probably take them from Javanese mythology according to sources in the BMG. So, maybe there will be no more names of Anglo-Saxon origin or Australian names. I suppose it’s fair to share the naming of these cylones but, take into consideration that most of the destruction occurs in Australia with devastating consequences we can probably have some right to call the occasional cyclone ‘Digger’, ‘Horace’, ‘Daisy‘ or even ‘Shit, here we go again!’.