What’s in a hurricane name??
The past two hurricane seasons in Central Florida have been pretty quite… too quite… So it’s no surprise to most Floridians that this season is shaping up to be a lively one. Just last week we were drenched by Fay, and along with keeping an eye on Gustav we’re now watching tropical storm Hanna.
Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists made by the National Hurricane Center. The original lists were composed entirely of female names. In 1979, due to sexist overtones (male meteorologists referring to the stormy personalities of women they knew), male names were introduced and now alternate with female names alphabetically.
Six lists of names are used in rotation so the list used in 2008 will again be used in 2014. These lists use all the letter of the alphabet except for Q, U, X, Y, or Z. The only situation in which the list is changed is if a storm is so costly or deadly that using that name for a future storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. In 2005 the names Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma were all retired. Since 1953, 67 names have been stricken from the lists.
- Ashley Kelly