The name of the Cyril storm that swept over the north of Europe, killing dozens, sounded too familiar to Bulgarians and, sure enough, it turned out that the hurricane has been named after a Bulgarian expat.
Kiril Genov, 65, has lived in Germany for the past 40 years, and he never expected to become famous through mass destruction, but this is exactly how it turned out in the end.
Genov's children had decided to surprise him for his birthday by naming a low-atmospheric current after him, bTV reported.
The business of "selling" the names of such currents for a year is popular in Germany and they make a nice gift. For the price of EUR 199 their father's name would be heard on weather forecasts from time to time as the current moved, and that would be it, they thought. No one expected, however that the current would turn into a hurricane and "Cyril" will be the among the most discussed topics in the news in the past days.
In a friendly nod to his "godfather", the hurricane circled Bulgaria, leaving only light material damages behind.