2017-18 Southwest Indian Ocean Cyclone Season (Akio)

The 2017-18 Southwest Indian Ocean Cyclone Season was the first above average season since the 2014-15 season, featuring 11 Named Storms and 6 Tropical Cyclones. Of those 6, 4 became Intense Tropical Cyclones and 1 became a Very Intense Tropical Cyclone.

Naming
Within the South-West Indian Ocean, tropical depressions and subtropical depressions that are judged to have 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 65 km/h (40 mph) by the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center on La Réunion Island, France (RSMC La Réunion) are usually assigned a name. However, it is the Sub-Regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centers in Mauritius and Madagascar who name the systems. The Sub-Regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Center in Mauritius names a storm should it intensify into a moderate tropical storm between 55°E and 90°E. If instead a cyclone intensifies into a moderate tropical storm between 30°E and 55°E then the Sub-Regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Center in Madagascar assigns the appropriate name to the storm. Beginning from the 2016–17 season, name lists within the South-West Indian Ocean will be rotated on a triennial basis. Storm names are only used once, so any storm name used this year will be removed from rotation and replaced with a new name for the 2020–21 season. The unused names are expected to be reused in the list for the 2020–21 season.