Willy-Wally?

January 17, 2006 11:06 AM

Was wondering if anyone knew the Australian name for a hurricane/tropical storm/typhoon/cyclone. I have tried google-ing this but can't seem to find anything but lists of hurricane names... it came up over dinner last week and has been driving me mad!
posted by dazedandconfused to Science & Nature (13 answers total)

As a kid I read that it was "willy willy", but I've never had that independently substantiated.
posted by Marquis at 11:11 AM on January 17, 2006

From wikipedia:
* hurricane in the North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean east of the dateline
* typhoon in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline
* severe tropical cyclone in the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160°E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90°E
* severe cyclonic storm in the North Indian Ocean
* tropical cyclone in the Southwest Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean east of 160°E.
* cyclone unofficially in the South Atlantic Ocean
posted by sanko at 11:15 AM on January 17, 2006

Best answer: Those of us Down Under are just getting out of bed, but as far as I know, what I as an American call a "hurricane" my husband and everybody else calls "cyclone." A "willy willy" is the Aboriginal name for a kind of a mini-tornado, like you'll be driving across the Outback and there'll be a whirling column of dust in the distance. ("Willy" means wind, my husband claims, and repeating a word twice means "bigger or more of.")
posted by web-goddess at 12:31 PM on January 17, 2006

web-goddess has it.

Those Willy willys are pretty neat, and in the outback they are faily common (I've seen 4 going at a time, spread out across the landscape).
posted by Four Flavors at 1:08 PM on January 17, 2006

Cyclone.
posted by dead_ at 1:24 PM on January 17, 2006

Cyclone is the preferred wording in the Top End, in my experience.
posted by andraste at 2:10 PM on January 17, 2006

Definitely cyclone, for your large-scale wind-spinning needs. The tiny ones (a couple of meters across, kinda thing) are referred to as willy-willy's.
posted by coriolisdave at 2:19 PM on January 17, 2006

Here's the wikipedia link to Cyclone Tracy, one of Australia's worst natural disasters.
posted by wilful at 2:33 PM on January 17, 2006

So for us North Americans "willy willy" = "dust devil?"

I've seen those in eastern Washington in the summer.
posted by sevenless at 3:04 PM on January 17, 2006

Since the post title is "Willy-Wally?" it's pretty clear that the poster wanted that specific word, not the more general cyclone.
posted by languagehat at 5:14 PM on January 17, 2006

Yep, dust devil in the US. I used to see them all the time when I lived in AZ.
posted by madderhatter at 5:16 PM on January 17, 2006

Its probably Hurricaneo or Cycloneo.
Those Aussies always add O's o the end of everything!!
posted by gergtreble at 7:05 PM on January 17, 2006

Slight departure:
Dust devils (Willy willy) are fascinating. When you see a big one, look up high. Sometimes you will see stuff, many hundreds of feet up, spinning like the bottom. I assume the entire colum spins, but there's nothing in the middle to see the action.
posted by Goofyy at 10:06 PM on January 17, 2006