Pagasa delists names of 8 destructive tropical cyclones in 2024
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has “retired” the names of eight tropical cyclones that caused massive damage in the country last year.
In a statement, Pagasa said that Aghon, Enteng, Julian, Kristine, Leon, Nika, Ofel and Pepito would be removed from its list of domestic names which are assigned to tropical cyclones occurring within the Philippine area of responsibility.
The state weather bureau noted that the move “made 2024 the year with the most number of decommissioned names since the present naming scheme began in 2001.”
Rationale
It said that starting 2028, it would be using the following replacement names to be taken from its reserved list: Amuyao, Edring, Josefa, Kidul, Lekep, Nanolay, Onos and Puwok.
“A domestic tropical cyclone name is decommissioned or ‘retired’ if its passage directly resulted in the deaths of at least 300 individuals or caused damage to houses, agriculture and infrastructure amounting to at least P1 billion based on official reports from the Office of the Civil Defense,” Pagasa explained.
“However, due to the compounding impacts brought about by the successive typhoon passages during the last quarter of 2024, the names of all tropical cyclones that directly contributed to the compounding impacts were also decommissioned from the list,” it added.
Typhoon “Aghon” (international name: Ewiniar) hit the country in May and affected provinces in the eastern sections of the Visayas region and Luzon.
It left behind P940 million worth of damage to infrastructure and P85 million in agriculture, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
On the other hand, Typhoon “Enteng” (Yagi) made landfall over Casiguran, Aurora, in September and caused over P700 million worth of damage to infrastructure and P1.9 billion in production losses for agriculture.
Supertyphoon “Julian” (Krathon), which raised Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 4 in Batanes also in September, caused an estimated P965 million worth of damage to infrastructure and P607 million in agriculture.
The combined effects of Supertyphoon “Leon” (Kong-rey) and Severe Tropical Storm “Kristine” (Trami), both of which hit the country in October, resulted in damage to infrastructure worth P10 billion and P7 billion worth of agricultural losses.
As for Typhoons “Nika” (Toraji), “Ofel” (Usagi) and “Pepito” (Man-yi), the NDRRMC said the trio that wrought havoc in the country in November left behind P700 million worth of damage to agriculture and almost P3 billion in infrastructure.
