How are the names assigned?

Question

How are hurricanes and storms assigned names? Like hurricane Katrina, John etc?

Answer 1

"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 2005 list will be used again in 2011.......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 committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it."

Katrina will most likely be eliminated for this reason

Answer 2

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

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 2005 list will be used again in 2011. Here is more information about the history of naming hurricanes.

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 committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

Several names have been changed since the lists were created. For example, on the 2004 list (which will be used again in 2010), Gaston has replaced Georges and Matthew has replaced Mitch. On the 2006 list, Kirk has replaced Keith. Here is more information about retired hurricane names.

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 in the off-season, it will take the next name in the list based on the current calendar date. For example, if a tropical cyclone formed on December 28th, it would take the name from the previous season's list of names. If a storm formed in February, it would be named from the subsequent season's list of names.

Answer 3

Well...

They pick from a list of female and male names about 20 names (X's, Q's, and a few more are often left out) that alternate from female to male. If the previous year started with a male, the next will start with a female, and vice-versa. Names are recycled, unless the storm had major impact. Georges, a category 1 storm in Mississippi, will probably be reused. However, Betsy, Camille, Andrew, Katrina, and a few more will never be used again, as they are significant events. Having 2 Camilles would get quite confusing!

After the names are used up, we revert to Greek numbers, Alpha, Betta, Delta, and so on.

Answer 4

The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. These lists are reused every six years. The only time a new name is put onto the list is when a hurricane is extremely deadly or costly. Then the name is taken off the list and a new name is chosen.

Answer 5

In 1953 they started naming these storms to keep track of them better. AT first they only used men names but in 1979 both men and women were used

Answer 6

A list is made up at the start of the season in alphabetical order.

Answer 7

Good question....
see....http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/prepare/hurricane_names.htm for a really informative answer..