Tropical cyclone naming

Imagine you are playing with your toy boat in a big pool with lots of other kids. Sometimes, a big wave comes and knocks over your boat. This wave is like a big storm called a tropical cyclone.

Adults need to know where the storm is and how strong it is, so they give it a name. This name helps them share information about the storm with each other without getting confused.

Tropical cyclones are given names from a list of names that are already decided before the storm happens. Before the lists were only made of ladies’ names, but now people also use men’s names.

Each storm gets a name based on the letter it starts with from the alphabet. For example, the first storm of the season gets a name starting with the letter "A" (like Anna). The second storm gets a name starting with the letter "B" and so on.

The World Meteorological Organization is in charge of making the list of names for different parts of the world, and different areas use different lists. They avoid using names that are too similar or too hard to pronounce. Sometimes, if a storm is very bad, its name might be retired so it’s not used again. 

So, next time you hear about a big storm on the news with a strange name like Katrina or Harvey, it's because adults are trying to keep track of it!