G'day Shambles et al,

I can't lay my hand on any confirmation of this, but I seem to remember hearing that the practice of giving names to major storm systems started in Australia - with a rather thorny government meteorologist who named them after politicians.

When he was forced (by the politicians) to stop naming them after politicians he had to give them female names ... which could never be mistaken for politicians because the idea of a female politician was ludicrous!

Regards,

Bob Bolton