Super Typhoon "Saomai" about to make landfall on mainland China yesterday :

It really is an awesome system, one of the more powerful typhoons to hit China this year. I like the distinct "eye". B)

A news article on Saomai's impact.

"Saomai" is the Vietnamese name for Venus, or the Morning Star. It was a good move several years ago to start giving local names to this region's tropical cyclones. The Hong Kong Observatory has a nice section on them, including their meaning, country of origin & even audio clips to listen to the pronunciation.

Most have lovely meanings, such as flowers/wildlife native to a particular country, or folk heros, or are appropriate for a weather system eg the name of the god of lightning/thunder. There was one year when I noticed a typhoon named "Durian", though. I thought it pretty odd naming a typhoon after a pungent fruit, much as you might think it queer to have a hurricane named "Banana" or "Coconut".