What is Yakecan and how are cyclone names chosen in Brazil

Cyclone Yakecan took the Brazilian news last week. In Tupi-Guarani it means “the sound of the skies”. The name was chosen by the Navy and made official through Special Notice 356/2022, published on May 16.

According to the WMO (World Meteorological Organization), the way in which cyclones are called is governed by regional and local practices, but which, in general, follow a pattern. The entity’s booklets explain that in the Atlantic and in the Southern Hemisphere, cyclones are usually titled in alphabetical order with the names of men and women, for example. However, this classification is not mandatory.

In Brazil, the choice of names for cyclones is based on an alphabetical list of terms in Tupi-Guarani.

In accordance with Maritime Authority Norms for Maritime Meteorology Activities 19 (Normam-19), any of the 15 listed designations can be used and reused.

A name is only excluded from the list if the phenomenon is considered by the directors of the CHM (Centro de Hidrografia da Marinha) as an event of “significant relevance”.

In the world, the naming of cyclones began around the 1900s. Female names were adopted for all types of cyclones in an arbitrary and non-ruled way. The masculine names were inserted at the end of the 20th century and started to intersperse with the feminine ones.

Later in the same century, meteorologists decided it was time to improve this classification and switched to alphabetical lists.

The method facilitates not only naming, but also understanding how many other cyclones or hurricanes were recorded earlier that year.

The cyclone or hurricane whose name begins with the letter A is the first of the current year, that of the letter B, the second, and that of the letter Y must be the 15th, according to the rule.

See the list of cyclone names approved for use by the Navy:

1 – Arani (furious weather)
2 – Bapo (rattle)
3 – Cari (white male)
4 – Deni (indigenous tribe)
5 – Eçaí (small eye)
6 – Guará (savannah wolf)
7 – Iba (bad)
8 – Jaguar (wolf)
9 – Kurumí (boy)
10 – Mani (Indigenous Goddess)
11 – Oquira (foliage bud)
12 – Potira (flower)
13 – Raoni (great warrior)
14 – Ubá (indigenous canoe)
15 – Yakecan (The Sound of Heaven)