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The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Playing the hurricane name game

Tropical storm Isaac visited the Gulf Coast just a few months ago. Major Hurricane Bret and tropical storm Arlene came last year. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still felt.

 

The connections these Atlantic storms (originating and forming in the Atlantic Ocean) have to each other are their human names. The latest storm, Sandy, just passed through the East Coast causing a 10-day electricity outage in New York City.

 

One wonders how and why these names are given.

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According to Geology.com, tropical storms that form in the Atlantic Ocean, with wind speeds reaching 39 mph are given a name. When the storm’s wind speed reaches more than 74 mph, it is categorized as a hurricane.  Thus a hurricane is actually a tropical storm that has retained its name.

 

In regards to the history of naming Atlantic hurricanes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website states, “For several hundred years many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint’s day on which the hurricane occurred.”

 

Hurricanes Santa Ana and San Felipe are examples of hurricanes from that time.

 

The practice of using traditionally female names for hurricanes became the norm during World War II among the forecasters. Army and Navy meteorologists who strategically planned military movements around the weather also adopted it.  This method made communicating information about storms easy, leading to more awareness about hurricanes.

 

Finally in 1953, The U.S. abandoned the plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) and started using the method of naming storms by typically female names. In 1979, meteorologists started using both male and female names to identify the storms.

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