| SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Hurricanes
Hurricane Facts, Tips and Safety Protocols
Naming
a Hurricane
There is much history in naming of tropical storms. Until
late in the 1940s, hurricanes were not officially named
as hurricane forecasting was still in its infancy. Only
the most severe of hurricanes were given names, and they
were often named for the place they did the most damage.
United States meteorologists working in the Pacific Ocean
began naming tropical cyclones during World War II, when
they often had to track multiple storms. They gave each
storm a name in order to distinguish the cyclones from
each other more quickly than referring to each storm
by its position.
The first United States named hurricane was George, which
hit in 1947. The next hurricane given a name was Hurricane
Bess in 1949. Various naming conventions were used until the
use of women’s names was adopted in 1953. Different names used
that year included Carol, Barbara, Edna, Dolly, Gilda, Hazel,
Irene, and Jill, among many others. Between the years of 1953
and 1979, only women’s names were used to name tropical storms.
Since 1979, both men’s and women’s names are alternated.
Experience shows that the
use of short and distinctive names is quicker and is much
less subject to error than the older
and more cumbersome methods involving latitude and longitude
identification. These advantages are especially important in
exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely
scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea. The use
of easily remembered names helps to greatly reduce confusion
when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. For
several hundred years, many hurricanes in the West Indies were
named after the particular saint’s day on which the hurricane
occurred. The Tropical Prediction Center near Miami, Florida
keeps a constant watch on oceanic storm breeding grounds. Once
a system with a counterclockwise circulation and wind speeds
of 39 miles per hour or greater is identified, the Center gives
the storm a name from the list for the current year. The letters
Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because of the scarcity
of names beginning with those letters. Names associated with
storms that have caused significant damage and/or death, are
typically retired from the list.
A typical hurricane starts out as a cluster of ordinary thunderstorms.
Powered by heat from warm tropical waters and guided by Coriolis
forces, the storms swirl together, joining forces to create
a tropical depression. They then turn into a tropical storm,
followed by a full-fledged hurricane. Wind shears in the South
Atlantic usually stop this process at the stage of tropical
depression. The names all start with a letter of the alphabet
and go in alphabetical order with female and male names together.
If a female name is first, then a male name comes next, followed
by a female and then a male. This pattern continues until there
are enough names. Tropical storms and hurricanes are named
in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. In the case of a storm
forming in the Atlantic, Caribbean, or Gulf of Mexico and then
crossing over to the Pacific Ocean, the storm then loses its
original name and is re-named with a new name from the list
for the Pacific Ocean. The list of names rotates through every
six years, which means the names that were used in the year
2006 were originally used in the year 2000 storm season.
One
question asked often is, who chooses the names? The countries
that are affected by hurricanes are those who choose the names.
The World Meteorological Organization Region 4 Committee approves
those names. That committee includes representatives of the
affected countries.
Emergencies and disasters can happen anytime, anywhere without warning. Protect yourself and your family. Click to see valuable emergency preparedness supplies and information. Be ready. Be prepared. I love this website. It's my SolveYourProblem recommendation.
# # # # #
by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2007
> Home > Hurricane
/ Emergency / Disaster Articles
: Main Page
|
