why do hurricanes have caucasian names and some latin names, but no names in other languages?

Question

example:El Nino or El Nina meaning boy/girl or other latin names.is that because spanish is becoming very well-known and accepted as the 2nd common language? is that discrimination against other languages, such as asian languages,etc or should meterologists/weather naming people alternate between different language names/terms and spice it up since the U.S. is very diverse (ex:Category 5 Hurricane = (italian)Mamma Mia! or (french)Le Danger!) or (chinese)Dai-lo*Big Boss*? or should they just all be in english since that is the universal language in the united states? what are your opinions? thanks.

I'm mainly referring to hurricanes happening in or around the united states.

I guess, I feel sorta left out because they don't use unconventional names and my name isn't on the list:( lol

Answer 1

Hurricanes have been the greatest threat for shipping since humanbeing started cruising,and as you know the Spanish and Portugul sailors were the frontiers and pioneers of navigation, additionally after them the English sailors achived this title, hence it is not amazing that the majotiy of hurricanes have latin or caucasian name becous they were named by the people who used above cited languages to name any new thing.

Answer 2

Spanish Italian Latin

Answer 3

There is no discrimination or racism going on when naming the hurricanes.
If there is a hurricane happening in the Atlantic Ocean, they will most likely give it a Spanish, English, or French name because it is closer to those countries. (These countries border the Atlantic Ocean). The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. The same lists are reused every six years.

Answer 4

If you check the lists in the link provided in the second answer, you will see that the names are comprised of names from the most spoken languages in that region.

As for "unconventional" names, there is a specific reason for that, and this quote from that link explains it: "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."

"Short, distinctive given names" is the key phrase in there. I don't really care if they are all English or not, but, for example, we do not need any Japanese or Filipino names, because they have their own in that region of the world, and it could create confusion in the records to have the same names in different regions. Maybe not for people like us, but certainly for meteorologists and other scientists around the world whose work involves hurricanes.

Answer 5

Names are taken from lists which vary from region to region and are drafted a few years ahead of time. The lists are decided upon, depending on the regions, either by committees of the World Meteorological Organization, or by national weather offices involved in the forecasting of the storms. Each year, the names of particularly destructive storms (if there are any) are "retired" and new names are chosen to take their place.

Additionally, The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 188 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO). It has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ernesto is not a caucasian name (from 2012 list)

Answer 6

Check out the National Hurricane Center website regarding hurricane names. The link is below:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Answer 7

Hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific and the Western Atlantic do have alternate male and female names, but as far as ethnic names, there are a few of them, as for the Western Pacific, check out some of the names they use.