Hundreds of tornadoes, typhoons, tornadoes and hurricanes roll across the planet every year. And on television or radio, we often come across alarming reports that somewhere on the planet the elements are raging. Hurricanes and typhoons reporters always call female names. Where did this tradition come from? We'll try to figure this out.
Hurricanes are given names. This is done in order not to confuse them, especially when several tropical cyclones operate in the same area of the world, so that there are no misunderstandings in weather forecasting, in issuing storm alerts and warnings.
Prior to the first naming system for hurricanes, hurricanes were given their names randomly and randomly. Sometimes the hurricane was named after the saint on whose day the disaster occurred. So, for example, the hurricane Santa Anna, which reached the city of Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, received its name, on St. Anna. The name could be given according to the area that suffered the most from the elements. Sometimes the name was determined by the very form of development of the hurricane. So, for example, the hurricane "Pin" No. 4 got its name in 1935, the shape of the trajectory of which resembled the mentioned object.
An original method of naming hurricanes, invented by Australian meteorologist Clement Rugg, is known: he named typhoons after members of parliament who refused to vote for weather research loans.
The names of cyclones were widely used during the Second World War. US Air Force and Navy meteorologists monitored typhoons in the northwest Pacific Ocean. To avoid confusion, military meteorologists named typhoons after their wives or mother-in-laws. After the war, the US National Weather Service compiled an alphabetical list of female names. The main idea of this list was to use short, simple and easy to remember names.
By 1950, the first system in the names of hurricanes appeared. At first they chose the phonetic army alphabet, and in 1953 they decided to return to FEMALE NAMES. Subsequently, the assignment of female names to hurricanes entered the system and was extended to other tropical cyclones - to Pacific typhoons, storms of the Indian Ocean, the Timor Sea and the northwest coast of Australia.
I had to streamline the naming procedure itself. So, the first hurricane of the year began to be called a female name, starting with the first letter of the alphabet, the second - with the second, etc. The names were chosen short, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. For typhoons, there was a list of 84 female names. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in conjunction with the US National Weather Service, expanded this list to include male names.
Since there are several basins where hurricanes form, there are also several lists of names. There are 6 alphabetical lists for Atlantic Basin hurricanes, each with 21 names, used for 6 consecutive years and then repeated. If there are more than 21 Atlantic hurricanes in a year, the Greek alphabet will come into play.
In the event that a typhoon is particularly destructive, the name given to it is struck off the list and replaced by another. So the name KATRINA is forever crossed off the list of meteorologists.
In the Pacific Northwest, typhoons have the names of animals, flowers, trees, and even foods: Nakri, Yufung, Kanmuri, Kopu. The Japanese refused to give female names to the deadly typhoons, because they consider women there to be gentle and quiet creatures. And the tropical cyclones of the northern Indian Ocean remain nameless.
Photo: NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center
Hurricane Irma, which hit the Caribbean and Florida, is called the strongest in the Atlantic on record, moreover, it brought terrible destruction and led to dozens of deaths. It is possible that his name will never again be used by meteorologists to name hurricanes in the future, so as not to remind people of the tragic events.
The Voice of America publication talked about how and why hurricanes get their names.
Why do hurricanes have names
Initially, the name is given to a storm, which later weakens or develops into a hurricane. Nameless storms and hurricanes would greatly complicate the lives of meteorologists, researchers, ship captains, rescuers, and just ordinary people. Names make communication easier, which means they increase security. That is why the World Meteorological Organization has created a special list of names for the elements, which is updated every year.
What were hurricanes called before the advent of the naming system
Hurricanes were often named after saints. For example, the hurricane that reached Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, the day of St. Anne, was called St. Anne. Sometimes the name of the area that suffered the most was chosen as the name. And sometimes the shape of the hurricane dictated the name. That's how the Pin Hurricane got its name in 1935.
How many names are on the list
Every year, 21 names are included in the list - the number of all letters in the alphabet, except for Q, U, X, Y and Z - they are not used. Names are used in order: the first storm of the season is called by a name that begins with A, the second with B, and so on.
But what if all the letters in the alphabet are over?
This happens extremely rarely: usually the number of tropical storms and hurricanes does not exceed 21. If this does happen, the Greek alphabet comes to the rescue. Hurricanes are named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc.
When are hurricanes called by female names, and when are they called by male names?
At first, the Hurricanes were exclusively "women". Assigning female names to natural disasters began military meteorologists during World War II. In 1953, this method was officially approved. But since 1978, after a lawsuit, the situation has changed: hurricanes began to be given male names.
How many names have already been "used up" by meteorologists this year?
For the Atlantic Coast, the list of hurricane names for 2017 looks like this: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Emily, Franklin, Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katya, Lee, Maria, Ophelia, Phillip, Rina, Sin, Tammy, Vince, and Whitney. Florida and Georgia are currently experiencing the effects of Hurricane Irma. Storms Jose and Katya have already formed in the Atlantic and have received their names. That is, 9 more names from the list of 2017 remained unused.
Can a hurricane's name "retire"?
Maybe if the elements were too destructive. In this case, reusing the same name may be too painful for those affected. For example, there will be no more hurricane Katrina. It has been removed from the list of names and will never be used again. There is a possibility that the same fate awaits the names of Harvey and Irma.
Hurricanes are given names. This is done in order not to confuse them, especially when several tropical cyclones operate in the same area of the world, so that there are no misunderstandings in weather forecasting, in issuing storm alerts and warnings.
Prior to the first naming system for hurricanes, hurricanes were given their names randomly and randomly. Sometimes the hurricane was named after the saint on whose day the disaster occurred. So, for example, the hurricane Santa Anna, which reached the city of Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, received its name, on St. Anna. The name could be given according to the area that suffered the most from the elements. Sometimes the name was determined by the very form of development of the hurricane. So, for example, the hurricane "Pin" No. 4 got its name in 1935, the shape of the trajectory of which resembled the mentioned object.
An original method of naming hurricanes, invented by Australian meteorologist Clement Rugg, is known: he named typhoons after members of parliament who refused to vote for weather research loans.
The names of cyclones were widely used during the Second World War. US Air Force and Navy meteorologists monitored typhoons in the Pacific Northwest. To avoid confusion, military meteorologists named typhoons after their wives or girlfriends. After the war, the US National Weather Service compiled an alphabetical list of female names. The main idea of this list was to use short, simple and easy to remember names.
By 1950, the first system in the names of hurricanes appeared. First they chose the phonetic army alphabet, and in 1953 they decided to return to female names. Subsequently, the assignment of female names to hurricanes entered the system and was extended to other tropical cyclones - to Pacific typhoons, storms of the Indian Ocean, the Timor Sea and the northwestern coast of Australia. I had to streamline the naming procedure itself. So, the first hurricane of the year began to be called a female name, starting with the first letter of the alphabet, the second - with the second, etc. The names were chosen to be short, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. For typhoons, there was a list of 84 female names. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in conjunction with the US National Weather Service, expanded this list to include male names as well.
Since there are several basins where hurricanes form, there are also several lists of names. There are 6 alphabetical lists for Atlantic Basin hurricanes, each with 21 names, used for 6 consecutive years and then repeated. If there are more than 21 Atlantic hurricanes in a year, the Greek alphabet will come into play.
In the event that a typhoon is particularly destructive, the name given to it is struck off the list and replaced by another. So the name Katrina is forever crossed off the list of meteorologists.
In the Pacific Northwest, typhoons have the names of animals, flowers, trees, and even foods: Nakri, Yufung, Kanmuri, Kopu. The Japanese refused to give female names to the deadly typhoons, because they consider women there to be gentle and quiet creatures. And the tropical cyclones of the northern Indian Ocean remain nameless.
Hurricanes cause massive damage every year different countries and continents. According to the news, we are told: “the devastating hurricane Katrina”, “the hurricane Faina”, etc. So why are hurricanes given female names? Let's take a closer look.
Cataclysms need names in order not to get confused. At the beginning of the 20th century, all hurricanes, typhoons and storms were called the numerical value of the coordinate where this or that natural disaster manifested itself. There was also a system according to which hurricanes were named after a saint who had a name day on the day the cataclysm began (the famous "Sant'Anna" and "San Felippe" got their names that way).
Gradually, there were not enough saints, and people got confused in the coordinates. It was necessary to come up with something radically new, understandable for everyone and easy to remember. A whole conference gathered with the participation of scientists from all over the world. At the meeting it was proposed various options names for the violence of the elements - these were the names of animals, and the names of plants, and the letters of the Greek alphabet. The military also offered their own version (this method of naming even lasted for some time) - “calling” hurricanes with male names. All hurricane names were given in alphabetical order (the alphabet used was English). The method did not last long because there were significantly more hurricanes than there were letters in the alphabet.
In 1953, after the publication of D. R. Stewart's book "Storm", the hurricane was first called the female name "Maria" - dedicated, therefore, to the main character of the novel. From that moment, until 1979, all hurricanes were called by female names. In 1979, they decided to abolish gender discrimination and call natural disasters by both male and female names.
IN this moment the system of "naming" cataclysms has undergone some changes and has become somewhat more perfect. How hurricanes will be called is now decided by the World Meteorological Organization. The issue is taken very seriously - a meeting of scientists from all over the world is held at the Geneva headquarters of the organization, and a list of names is approved, which will be used in a given year. For one meeting, only 6 lists are approved, which contain 21 names each, which will be used in the name of hurricanes. The list does not contain names that begin with Q, X, Y, Z, since there are very few of them, and it is almost meaningless to call them hurricanes.
It also happens that 21 names are not enough - then the letters of the Greek alphabet come to the rescue (in 2005, Alpha, Gamma and Beta thundered deafeningly throughout the world). If any cataclysm caused memorable devastating consequences, then its name is immortalized and cannot belong to other hurricanes.
The Japanese do not follow this system because of their mentality - women for them are gentle and sweet creatures who cannot bear evil, therefore this nation calls hurricanes the names of phenomena, flowers, plants and animals.
Events
Undoubtedly, everyone paid attention to how simple and, at times, gentle names called hurricanes by researchers around the world.
It would seem that all the names are random. Take at least originated over the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Earl(you can translate as Hurricane "Count"), which raged last year over the Bahamas, the islands of Puerto Rico and along the East coast of the United States.
Or Tropical Storm Fiona, which, as they say, "walked" shoulder to shoulder next to Hurricane Earl.
However, the system itself, by which hurricanes and storms are given specific names, has a long and rather complicated history.
"What's in a name?!"
As reported in US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), once hurricanes were given the names of saints.
Moreover, the saint was not chosen by chance, but depending on the day on which this or that hurricane formed.
For example, it appeared Hurricane Saint Anna, which arose on July 26, 1825, the day of St. Anne.
You may ask how scientists acted if hurricanes were born, for example, on the same day, but on different years? In this case, the "younger" hurricane was assigned serial number besides the name of the saint.
Eg, Hurricane San Felipe struck Puerto Rico on September 13th, 1876, Saint Philip's day. Another hurricane that hit the same area also started on September 13th. But already in 1928. A later hurricane was named Hurricane San Felipe II.
A little later, the system for naming hurricanes changed, and scientists began to use the location of the hurricane to designate it, that is, the width and longitude.
However, according to NOAA, this method of naming did not catch on due to the fact that it was far from always possible to accurately and unambiguously determine the coordinates of the place of origin of one or another hurricane.
The inconsistent and contradictory radio reports coming in on this topic sometimes required a long and thorough study and screening.
So the hurricane may end up "dying" nameless while scientists calculate its coordinates to give natural disaster name by this method!
Therefore, the United States of America abandoned such a system in 1951 in favor of a seemingly very simple and effective alphabetical naming convention proposed by the military.
True, this method used not the usual, but the phonetic alphabet. It was then that they were born Hurricanes Able, Baker and Charlie, in the names of which there was one pattern - the first letters of the hurricanes corresponded to the letters English alphabet A, B, C.
However, as it turned out, hurricanes arose more often than new ideas came to the head of scientists, and the number of tornadoes in enough short period time clearly exceeded the number of letters and sounds in English language!
To avoid confusion, forecasters began using names of people in 1953.. Each name had to be approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center. (NOAA's National Hurricane Center).
Initially, all hurricanes were assigned female names. The name of the very first hurricane that was named using this technique is Hurricane Maria.
It's destructive a natural phenomenon received such a beautiful female name in honor of the heroine of the novel "Storm", which was written by the American novelist and scholar George Rippey Stewart in 1941.
As told to the magazine "Little secrets of life" (Life "s Little Mysteries) representative of the National Hurricane Center Dennis Feltgen, "in 1979, someone had the wise idea to use male names for hurricanes and since then they have been used along with female"
"You call him like me!"
Nowadays, hurricane names are chosen in Geneva, at the headquarters World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
This specialized intergovernmental agency is responsible for monitoring six weather regions in the world, including the United States of America, which forms the fourth region.
It includes North America, South America and district caribbean.
Especially for Atlantic tropical storms, The National Hurricane Center has created six hurricane name lists., which was discussed and approved by the WMO by voting at a special meeting of the international committee.
These lists contain French, Spanish, German and English names, because, according to experts from NOAA, "The elements also strike at other nations, and hurricanes are monitored, studied and recorded in many countries".
These six lists of names are in constant rotation and new lists are regularly approved.
For example, in 2010, a list of names was approved, which, according to forecasts, will be used only in 2016.
Initially, the lists of hurricane names included names from A to Z (for example, among the hurricanes that raged in 1958, you can find such names - Udele, Virgy, Wilna, Xrae, Yurith and Zorna (Udele, Virgy, Wilna, Xrae, Yurith and Zorna)).
According to Feltgen, the letters Q, U, X and Z are not used in the current lists due to the fact that there are simply not enough names that begin with these letters.
However, sometimes changes are also made to the currently used lists. If the storm or hurricane was particularly destructive (for example, as Hurricane Katrina 2005), the WMO determines by special vote whether the name should be used to designate hurricanes in the future.
If one or another name is excluded from the list, it is decided to use another name starting with the same letter of the alphabet. This name is also carefully selected and approved by popular vote.
The names that are used in these lists can be arbitrarily unusual, or, on the contrary, well-known and familiar to everyone.
For example, the names planned for the 2010 hurricanes contained names such as Gaston, Otto, Shary and Virgine (Gaston, Otto, Shary and Virgine).
Do all storms have names? No, only special hurricanes get this honor! Namely, those who the funnel rotates counterclockwise, and the wind speed inside the hurricane is at least 63 kilometers per hour.
Then such a "lucky one" is assigned the next name from the list of names of hurricanes approved for this year.
