Cyclone Remal made a landfall in the early hours of Monday between Sagar Island in West Bengal and Khepupara in Bangladesh. The name “Remal”, meaning ‘sand’ in Arabic, was chosen by Oman according to the standard convention of naming tropical cyclones in the region. This practice raises the question of why Oman, located on the Arabian Sea, can name a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and why cyclones are named at all.
