Hurricane Names

Whew! Sarasota dodged the bullet known as Irene, but people all along the eastern seaboard, including some of our neighbors, may not be so lucky. From the Carolinas to Maine, we're continuing to follow the latest storm bulletins. Thought we'd pass along an interesting story from The Weather Channel about naming the storms. And let's keep our fingers crossed that Irene veers further out to sea.

When you think about it, it may seem curious that hurricanes and tropical storms receive names each year, while other kinds of storms — such as severe thunderstorms and the fierce tornadoes they sometimes produce — do not.

After all, the largest and most intense thunderstorms can spawn dozens of tornadoes that impact cities and communities across multiple states. So why are names reserved only for those storms that reach tropical storm and hurricane status? Why not simply use the date on which a hurricane makes landfall as its name?

In fact, that's just how hurricanes and tropical storms were labeled in the United States all the way up until the 1950s.

Before 1950, military weather forecasters in the U.S. were responsible for assigning a number, not a name, to tropical storms. For example, the fifth tropical cyclone of the 1932 hurricane season was called Hurricane Number 5. In later years, the military phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.) was used to assign names.

Beginning in 1953, tropical storms were assigned female names. Names were listed in alphabetical order, with the first tropical storm of the year given a name beginning with "A."

In 1978, both men's and women's names were included in the eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, the Atlantic Basin list of names was expanded to include both male and female names. Today, once a tropical disturbance intensifies to tropical storm strength, with wind speeds above 39 mph, the National Hurricane Center gives it a name.

Member nations of the World Meteorological Organization have since revised the list to include names common to English, Spanish, and French-speaking peoples. The order of men's and women's names alternates every year. For example, in 1995 the list began with Allison. In 1996, it began with Arthur.

There are six lists of tropical cyclone names, 21 names for Atlantic storms and 24 names for eastern North Pacific storms. The lists are used on a rotating basis. For instance, the set for 2011 was also used in 2005, except the names that were retired.

Hurricane and Tropical Storm Names for 2011:

Arlene - Bret - Cindy - Don - Emily - Franklin - Gert - Harvey - Irene - Jose - Katia - Lee - Maria - Nate - Ophelia - Philippe - Rina - Sean - Tammy - Vince - Whitney

If a tropical storm forms in the Atlantic and crosses over to the Pacific, it is given a new name.

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.

Occasionally, a name is retired from the list when an associated hurricane has caused many deaths or a tremendous amount of damage. Some retired names include Andrew, Bob, Camille, David, Dennis, Elena, Fran, Frederic, Katrina, Hugo, Ivan, Opal, Rita, Stan, and Wilma.

~ The Weather Channel