Who names Cyclones? Why is the storm hitting Australia called Alfred - and is there a possibility Category 2 storm Cyclone Alfred will hit New Zealand

The cyclone was named Alfred instead of Anthony, after the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) chose to change the upcoming name to avoid confusion with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The bureau’s predetermined* list of cyclone names runs alphabetically, alternating between male and female names.

The bureau officially adopted a cyclone naming policy in 1963, initially using only female names before switching to alternating male and female names in 1975. The decision to call this cyclone Alfred follows the dissipation of severe tropical cyclone Zelia, which struck Western Australia.

“Zelia” brought the bureau to the end of its alphabetical list of cyclone names. Under its longstanding naming system, the next cyclone was due to be called Anthony, but the bureau decided to skip over the name earlier this month. “When a name matches a prominent person of the time, we reorder to the next name starting with that same letter to avoid any confusion,” a BOM spokesperson told AAP.

Cyclone names are also co-ordinated with neighbouring countries through the World Meteorological Organisation to avoid duplication*. If a cyclone crosses regional borders, such as from Indonesia or Fiji into Australia, it keeps the name given by the country of origin.

Australia experiences an average of 11 cyclones per season, with names recycled unless a particularly severe storm is retired from the list. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), naming cyclones began to quickly identify storms in warning messages. Names were thought to be easier to remember than numbers and technical terms and made it easier for the media to report on tropical cyclones.

Cyclone Alfred is currently sitting about 245km off shore from Brisbane or 225km east-north-east of the Gold Coast. It is now expected to approach the outer islands very late on Friday and cross the coast in the early hours of Saturday, most likely between Noosa and Coolangatta. The severe weather has already started to affect parts of the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane's bayside suburbs.

Once a cyclone makes landfall, it loses that crucial ingredient of warm waters, so it will rapidly deteriorate, but that doesn't mean the severe weather will be over. The threat of heavy rain from decaying cyclones can last for days if a system remains slow moving. There have been no warnings that the Cyclone will hit New Zealand.