The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on Wednesday announced it is decommissioning eight tropical cyclone names from its regular set due to their destructive impacts in the country in 2024.
PAGASA Administrator Nathaniel Servando said the names Aghon, Enteng, Julian, Kristine, Leon, Nika, Ofel, and Pepito will be removed from the agency’s list of domestic names used for tropical cyclones in the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR).
This means 2024 is the year with the most number of decommissioned names since the present naming scheme started in 2001.
According to the state weather bureau, a domestic tropical cyclone name is retired if its passage directly resulted in the deaths of at least 300 people or caused damage amounting to at least P1 billion based on Office of Civil Defense (OCD) official reports.
“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,” PAGASA said.
The replacement names Amuyao, Edring, Josefa, Kidul, Lekep, Nanolay, Onos, and Puwok will now be used from PAGASA’s reserved list starting January 2028.