How are hurricanes named?

I recently noted that hurricanes names seemed to have some pattern in hurricane names: Katrina, Rita, Wilma. They looks alphabetic but there are missing letters. All look like names of females. So I wanted to know how they are actually named and it turned out to be more interesting than I thought. Here some interesting facts

  1. Tropical storms in North Atlantic are named in such a manner that masculine and feminine names alternate one after the other.
  2. And yes they are in alphabetic order, so my guess was right.
  3. The logical conclusion here is that there can be max 26 names. No, There are can only be 21. As they don't name storms by Q, U, X, Y, Z.
  4. So the next logical question is what happens if you have more storms then 21. Then they start naming them by name Greek alphabets starting with alpha beta.
  5. 2005 would be the first year to use these letters. So 2005 is the with record number of storms.
  6. Oh, did I tell you the names for all storms till 2010 have been named.
  7. And most storms after that have also been named as they will use the names used in 2005 in 2011 and 2006's name in 2012.. and so on.
  8. Are you bored that you will not see a new name. Don't be disappointed. You will see new names as names of most devastating are removed from the list and a new name would be chosen to replace it. They have already dropped Katrina from the list.
  9. Oh one last things before 1979 all hurricanes were females.

Now finally let me give you names of all the hurricanes till 2010

2005: Arlene Bret Cindy Dennis Emily Franklin Gert Harvey Irene Jose Katrina Lee Maria Nate Ophelia Philippe Rita Stan Tammy Vince Wilma

2006: Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto Florence Gordon Helene Isaac Joyce Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar Patty Rafael Sandy Tony Valerie William

2007: Andrea Barry Chantal Dean Erin Felix Gabrielle Humberto Ingrid Jerry Karen Lorenzo Melissa Noel Olga Pablo Rebekah Sebastien Tanya Van Wendy

2008: Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gustav Hanna Ike Josephine Kyle Laura Marco Nana Omar Paloma Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred

2009: Ana Bill Claudette Danny Erika Fred Grace HenriIda Joaquin Kate Larry Mindy Nicholas Odette Peter Rose Sam Teresa Victor Wanda

2010: Alex Bonnie Colin Danielle Earl Fiona Gaston Hermine Igor Julia Karl Lisa Matthew Nicole Otto Paula Richard Shary Tomas Virginie Walter

Enjoy

Aditya

Comments

Sandeep Karanth said…
Is there a category restriction on nameing a storm? Or storms of all categories are named?
4:04 PM, November 02, 2005
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