Hurricane Names
As we get through the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which started on June 1, here are some interesting hurricane facts to take to the dinner table. What do you know about hurricane names? Did you know that…
…hurricanes occur every year, and sometimes two or three hurricanes can be active at the same time. Using names for these storms makes it much easier for meteorologists, researchers, emergency response workers, ship captains and citizens to communicate about specific hurricanes and be clearly understood.
…hurricanes are the only weather disasters that have been given their own names.
…the first hurricane of the year is given a name beginning with the letter “A”.
…the man who first gave names to hurricanes was an Australian weather forecaster named C. Wragge in the early 1900s.
…hurricanes were named after girls until 1979 when Hurricane Bob hit near New Orleans in July of that year.
…Hurricane Fox was the first storm to be named in an official weather bureau advisory.
…Names can be repeated after an interval of six years, but when a hurricane is especially devastating, its name is permanently retired and another name replaces it. To give you an idea, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate all have their names retired.
…in the rare years when more than 21 storms are named, the additional storms are given names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta are used for their names.
This article was originally published in the June 2018 edition of our weekly Hurricane Survival supplement.
