The Name Game

NOAA, others predict above average hurricane season

July 11, 2018

Lafourche Ring Levee

July 11, 2018

Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names is quicker and less subject to error than the more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. 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 – all alphabetical, excluding the letters “Q,” “U,” “X,” “Y” and “Z” – are used in rotation. Thus, the 2012 list will be used again this year. It’s same list that was used in 2006, as well.

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 new storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee, the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. In 2018, Sara will replace Sandy.

The 2018 list also sees a few notable and memorable names that will hopefully not endanger the United States again as they did in previous years. In 2012, a version of Debby was a tropical storm that dropped up to 28 inches of rain in northern Florida. Also in 2012, Hurricane Isaac caused an estimated $2.8 billion in damages along the Gulf Coast. Significant flooding occurred locally in Slidell, LaPlace and Plaquemines parish.

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on. If a storm forms outside of the June-November season, it will follow the list of the year it forms. For example, Subtropical Storm Alberto formed in late May 2018 but took the first name off the predetermined list for 2018.

One of the U.S.’s busier hurricane seasons, the 2005 season, included storms Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. Tropical Storm Zeta brought 2005’s final tally to 27 tropical storms. That same year, five storm names were retired: Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.