Typhoon Talas moving to east of Russia's Primorsky territory

MOSCOW, September 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Typhoon Talas is gradually moving
to the east of Russia's Far-Eastern Primorsky /Maritime/ territory and
weather forecasters there predict the possibility of emergency situations.
Spokespeople for the territorial meteorological board told Itar-Tass
the passage of the typhoon by the eastern coast of the territory may
produce heavy rains on the night from Sunday to Monday with the predicted
rainfall of 15 mm to 40 mm over a period of twelve or fewer hours.
In some places, the rainfall may reach 50 mm. The velocity of the wind
on the coast of the Sea of Japan is likely to vary from 17 meters per
second to 22 meters per second, with gusts on the cliffs as strong as 25
mps to 28 mps.
Possible emergency situations may be connected with the disruption of
public transport operations, the falling of trees and advertising
billboards, the collapse of large-format structures and poorly fastened
sheds, and the rupturing of electric power transmission lines.
In the light of the expected sharp deterioration of weather,
hydrometeorology experts have issued a recommendation to people living the
eastern parts of the Primorsky territory to refrain from making trips
outside the population centers and to keep a reserve of necessary
foodstuffs and medicines at home.
Talas seems to be a male name. It is difficult enough to glean its
exact meaning, as it has Greek, Jewish and Turkic roots.
Depending on the source language that you try and track to seek its
origins in, it may mean 'sea', 'something big', 'a huge wave', and many
other things.
A river and a city in the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan have
the name 'Talas'.
The global meteorological community has long developed a tradition to
assign names to hurricanes so as to be able to distinguish between them,
especially in the situations where several tropical cyclones are
tormenting the same region of the world.
The names are chosen by the World Meteorological Organization on the
basis of a certain rule, which suggests that the name of the first
hurricane should begin with A, the next with B and so on. The alternation
of male and female names is also mandatory.
For instance, the hurricanes that raged in Atlantics in 1998 had the
names Alex, Bonnie, Charlie, and Daniel.
The tradition to assign names is a relatively new one. Previously, the
hurricanes would be named without a system and haphazardly.
A hurricane would occasionally be named after a saint if it occurred
on the day when the latter was venerated. Otherwise, it might be named
after a locality where it did the biggest damage.
Sometimes, the very shape of the hurricane's passage above the surface
of the earth would suggest the name. This happened in 1935 when hurricane
No, 4 was called 'a pin'.
An original method of assigning the names was proposed by an
Australian meteorologist, who suggested that hurricanes be named after the
members of parliament refusing to allocate appropriate monies for
meteorological research.
-0-kle