Last year there was Zane, this year Zita. Also Victor, Winnie, Yule and Amber. On their way are Bing and Cass. Next year there will be a Yanni. Reel off the names to Johnny Chan Chung-leung and chances are he'll remember their history or be able to tell you where they are now and what they are doing.
These are not errant children, though they bear similarities: they are typhoons.
'This is Oscar, which hit Guam in 1995,' says Professor Chan, pointing at a computer image of the characteristic satellite picture, with the white cloud swirling around the central eye.
Later, as we spoke, he pulled up a shot of Amber building east of Taiwan, while another formed to the east and yet another south of Hong Kong, leading to a possibly-interesting situation of two clashing storms combining into one. The image of this beautiful but deadly storm glowed on the screen as we talked.
This is Professor Chan's time of year. As the Western North Pacific goes through its tropical storm season, Hong Kong's only meteorology researcher specialising in typhoons also winds up into a period of buffeting, mainly from the media.
This year the media winds are stronger because 44-year-old Professor Chan, of City University's department of physics and materials science, stuck his neck out in July and forecast how many tropical storms he expected this year.
