MANILA — State weather bureau PAGASA will use a new set of storm names this 2024 for tropical cyclones that will form within or enter the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR).

Aghon, Querubin, Romina, and Upang are being used for the first time. They take the places of storm names Ambo, Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses which brought severe damage in 2020.

The full list of storm names for 2024 are as follows:

• Aghon
• Butchoy
• Carina
• Dindo
• Enteng
• Ferdie
• Gener
• Helen
• Igme
• Julian
• Kristine
• Leon
• Marce
• Nika
• Ofel
• Pepito
• Querubin
• Romina
• Siony
• Tonyo
• Upang
• Vicky
• Warren
• Yoyong
• Zosimo

If there are more than 25 storms in a year, PAGASA can refer to an auxiliary list of 10 other names.

For 2024, the auxiliary names are:

• Alakdan
• Baldo
• Clara
• Dencio
• Estong
• Felipe
• Gomer
• Heling
• Israel
• Julio

Storm names repeat every four years, unless retired.

PAGASA retires or decommissions a storm name if it causes at least 300 deaths or P1 billion damage to agriculture, infrastructure, houses, and other assets.

The weather bureau has yet to announce which among the 11 names used in 2023 will be decommissioned.

The past year saw one of the lowest storm counts on record, alongside 1998 and 2010.

• 2023 could tie record of fewest storms inside PAR

WHAT'S IN A STORM NAME?

For the first half of 2024, PAGASA forecasts 2 to 5 tropical cyclones forming within or enter the PAR.

PAGASA is the only weather agency in the world that assigns a local name to storms. This has been the practice of the Weather Bureau, the agency that preceded PAGASA, since the 1960s in the hopes of warning the public more effectively.

In 1998, PAGASA held a "Name-a-Bagyo" contest which received 140 entries that were used for the first time in 2001 and remain in use in the present naming system.

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