Hurricane Names

Every year I hear a few comments from people regarding the names we use during the current hurricane season.  Many times these questions arise at schooltalks from inquisitive students.  “How do they come up with the names?“, “Who chooses the names?“, etc.  One time a student asked me if we could name the next hurricane after his mother.  And another meteorologist with whom I worked in Atlanta suggested the names have a southern flair since the vast majority of the time these systems impact the South.  How about Hurricane “Bubba”, or “Buster”...what would you think of a Hurricane “Cletus”? 

The WMO, or World Meteorological Organization comes up with the names that we use for hurricanes every year.  The names are chosen to reflect the areas that are impacted, so there are Hispanic names and American names that make up the list for the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic Ocean + Caribbean + Gulf of Mexico).  A name is retired when it causes so much death and/or destruction that using that name again would be too painful to those who sustained major losses.  It also enables meteorologists to record data specific to a particular damaging storm.  There will never be another Hurricane Katrina, for instance.  The WMO has come up with a replacement name for the “K” storm.  It will be “Katia” when we use that list again in 2011.

The names alternate between male and female within a particular season.  Before 1979 all of the names were female.

I felt sorry for all those named Bill during the past week - I’m sure you couldn’t say your name without someone making a reference to the current hurricane.  Then again - the Bills may have felt like a star - mentioned every night, sometimes several times, during the newscast!  Fortunately Bill stayed out to sea even though it’s effects were deadly with high waves that claimed lives off the coast of Maine.  Hopefully when “Danny” forms it too will spare coastal residents from a direct hit.  In the meantime, scan the rest of this year’s list - is your name on it? 

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

If it’s not - you never know - your name just might be on **next** year’s list!