WHAT'S IN A NAME - Naming Storms

HISTORY OF NAMING STORMS

Call it a Tornado, Twister, Cyclone, Hurricane, Willy-Willy, or what you will, they have a destructive force that has terrorised man since as long as we can remember. 

The practice of naming storms (tropical cyclones) began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms.

In the beginning, storms were named arbitrarily. An Atlantic storm that ripped off the mast of a boat named Antje became known as Antje's hurricane.

For several hundred years many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred.

In the pursuit of a more organized and efficient naming system, meteorologists later decided to identify storms using names from a list arranged alpabetically. Thus, a storm with a name which begins with A, like Anne, would be the first storm to occur in the year. 

NAMING STORMS - THE MODERN SYSTEM

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

The original name lists featured only women's names.

In 1979, men's names were introduced and they alternate with the women's names.

Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2008 list is being used again in 2014.

The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. 

If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO Tropical Cyclone Committees (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. 


There is a strict procedure to determine a list of tropical cyclone names in an ocean basin(s) by the Tropical Cyclone Regional Body responsible for that basin(s) at its annual/biennial meeting. There are five tropical cyclone regional bodies, i.e. ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones, RA I Tropical Cyclone Committee, RA IV Hurricane Committee, and RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee.

SOME STORM NAMES RETIRED IN THE RECENT YEARS

1990 Diana Klaus	1991 Bob	1992 Andrew	1993	1994	1995 Luis Marilyn Opal Roxanne	1996 Cesar Fran Hortense	1997	1998 Georges Mitch	1999 Floyd Lenny
2000 Keith	2001 Allison Iris Michelle	2002 Isidore Lili	2003 Fabian Isabel Juan	2004 Charley Frances Ivan Jeanne	2005 Dennis Katrina Rita Stan Wilma	2006	2007 Dean Felix Noel	2008 Gustav Ike Paloma	2009
2010 Igor Tomas	2011 Irene	2012 Sandy	2013 Ingrid

Twister In Kansas from CSU-Pueblo TODAY, CC BY 3.0

NAMES OF UPCOMING STORMS IN YOUR REGION

Be the first to know what the next storm in your region will be named - Have a look at these region wise lists.

While it might be interesting to know how the storms are named, it is important to be safe in a storm and know what to do if you are caught in one!

Have a look at the post  How To Survive Disaster - Tornadoes

Be Alert. Keep Safe.