Who´s idea was it to give hurricanes ´people´ names?

It is to facilitate identification of storm systems essential to navigation. I do not know who came up with this idea.

and to use the same names every year, it´s very confusing

not like there aren´t enough names to go for a very long time before you would have to repeat

hehehe.... I can´t believe I´m lecturing Idol...

"Ever heard about google Idol? Or you just use www.cade.com.br?


[link to www.aoml.noaa.gov]

Reason to name hurricanes

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE , NOAA, National Weather Service


Experience shows that the use of short, distintive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitute identification methods. These advantages are specially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundres widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. For example, one hurricane can be moving slowly westward in the Gulf of Mexico , while at exactly the same time anothe hurricane can be moving rapidly Northward along the Atlantic coast. In the past, confusion and false rumors have arisen when storm advisories broadcast from radio statio were mistaken for warning concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.

History of Hurricane Names


For several hundred years many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint´s day on which the hurricane occurred. Ivan R. Tannehill describes in his book "Hurricanes" the major tropical storms of recorded history and mentions many hurricanes named after saints. For example, there was "Hurricane Santa Ana" which struck Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825, and "San Felipe" (the first) and "San Felipe" (the second) which hit Puerto Rico on September 13 in both 1876 and 1928.

Tannehill also tells of Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist who began giving women´s names to tropical storms before the end of the l9th century.

An early example of the use of a woman´s name for a storm was in the novel "Storm" by George R . Stewart, published by Random House in 1941, and since filmed by Walt Disney. During World War II this practice became widespread in weather map discussions among forecasters, especially Air Force and Navy meteorologists who plotted the movements of storms over the wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean.


In 1953, the United States abandoned as confusing a two-year old plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) when a new, international phonetic alphabet was introduced. That year, this Nation´s weather services began using female names for storms.


The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men´s and women´s names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Fallen it´s not every year, take a look:

[link to www.nhc.noaa.gov]

"Experience shows that the use of short, distintive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitute identification methods."

This corroborates my explanation, thanks.

mine!

thanks 10674, so there are a few years in between, but still, they use the same names more than once

take bonnie for instance

bonnie 1998 or bonnie 2004, when you are researching bonnie, you get tons of info for both hurricanes

i know that victims can petition to have a name removed from the list, like andrew

i expect katrina will be taken off the list as well

you´re welcome Fallen. More info:

There are actually six lists of names in use for storms in the Atlantic. These lists rotate, one each year; the list of this year´s names will not be reused until 2011. The names get recycled each time the list comes up, with one exception: storms so devastating that reusing the name is inappropriate. In this case, the name is taken off the list and another name is used to replace it; there will not be another Hurricane Andrew, because Andrew has been replace by Alex on the list. Although it will not be an issue for five more years, the names of Frances, Ivan and Jeanne will probably go into the history books in 2010.

So Idol you think you are smart ?

Tell me wich name they are going to use this year after we run out???

Names still left this year:

Phillipe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma


...and the shurricane season is just in its peak

2005 Hurricane Names

In 1953, The National Hurricane Center began naming storms, rather than relying on the old system of map coordinates for identification. Originally, all storms were named for women, but, starting in 1979, men´s and women´s names were alternated.

An international committee of the World Meteorological Organization now creates and maintains the annual lists. Names are used on a six-year rotation, meaning the 2005 list will come up again in 2011. (See this year´s hurricane season outlook) Names of especially damaging and deadly storms are retired. From the 2004 list, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne -- four major hurricanes that struck Florida -- will not reappear when the list returns in 2010.

On this year´s list, Franklin and Lee replace Floyd and Lenny, which were retired in 1999.

For 2005, Atlantic tropical storms will be named:

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

its the choice of the names that are the problem. you can´t really rally a lot of fear from stan can you? ophilia just makes you think of silly thinks like ophilia butt..

give them names that provoc fear and you will get people to take them more serious when the warnings come. if someone told me bush or cheney were going to blow through my town, i´d high tale it out of there PDQ

if someone told me bush or cheney were going to blow through my town, i´d high tale it out of there PDQ

According to the Weather Channel, if we run out of names for the 2005 season, they will continue naming with the Greek alphabet :

Alpha
Beta
etc....

i think they should use the names of gods and goddesses.

just think, we could say "allah" destroyed this city, "jesus" destroyed that city, "yahweh" laid this land to waste, etc, etc.

Alpha