Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Boglebaum here. Hurricanes and typhoons, both of
Speaker 1: which are types of tropical cyclones depending on where they are,
Speaker 1: didn't always have names. They used to often be tagged
Speaker 1: with just a bunch of numbers, maybe a latitude and longitude,
Speaker 1: sometimes just an arbitrary number. Some were named after where
Speaker 1: they came ashore, like the Great Galveston Hurricane of nineteen
Speaker 1: hundred or four saints like the St. Philippe Hurricane of
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six. Aunt's Hurricane of eighteen forty two was
Speaker 1: dubbed for the ship it d masted. Today, though the
Speaker 1: World Meteorological Organization, or w m O, gives hurricanes short,
Speaker 1: simple names, people's given names. Since the early nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: the w MO has coordinated with the National Hurricane Center,
Speaker 1: a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to
Speaker 1: put a proper name to every one of these tropical cyclones.
Speaker 1: There's a reason hurricanes aren't named Willy Nilly any longer,
Speaker 1: or Willie or Nilly for that matter. As the w
Speaker 1: m OS website explains, names are presumed to be far
Speaker 1: easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. Many agree
Speaker 1: that appending names to storms makes it easier for the
Speaker 1: media to report on tropical cyclones, heightens interest in warnings,
Speaker 1: and increases community preparedness. Basically, the working theory goes that
Speaker 1: people in the path of the storms will remember and
Speaker 1: pay attention to media reports about Hurricane Elsa more than
Speaker 1: they would Hurricane three. The ways the tropical cyclones are
Speaker 1: named worldwide varies, but here in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf
Speaker 1: of Mexico, and North Atlantic region, the names come in
Speaker 1: alphabetical order off a set of six lists maintained by
Speaker 1: the w m O. The six lists rotate, so the
Speaker 1: names used in Arthur, Bertha, Chris, to All, Dolly, et
Speaker 1: cetera will come around again in But just because the
Speaker 1: lists are alphabetical doesn't mean that there are twenty six
Speaker 1: entries on every list. Rather, there are only twenty one
Speaker 1: names per list in this region. Don't look for names
Speaker 1: beginning with q, U, x, Y, or z. If the
Speaker 1: storms really start piling on and forecasters need more than
Speaker 1: twenty one names in the same season, they turned to
Speaker 1: the Greek alphabet alpha and beta all the way through zeta.
Speaker 1: Before nineteen seventy nine, the storms were only called by
Speaker 1: names typically given to women, but since then men's names
Speaker 1: have been introduced to the mix, and now the to
Speaker 1: alternate on each list, and those six lists stay the
Speaker 1: same unless a storm is particularly devastating, deadly, or damaging,
Speaker 1: then those hurricane names are retired, has happened with Hurricanes Andrew,
Speaker 1: Hugo and Katrina. Nobody wants to see a warning for
Speaker 1: Hurricane Katrina pop up again, and the names Florence and
Speaker 1: Michael were also retired at the end of the twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen season after they struck North Carolina and Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: Through the end of the tween hurricane season, eighty nine
Speaker 1: Atlantic hurricane or tropical storm names have been retired. It's
Speaker 1: presumable that, considering the damage left behind from a Hurricane
Speaker 1: Dorian in the Bahamas in twenty nineteen, it will join
Speaker 1: the list too, but we'll have to wait to find
Speaker 1: out until the meeting of the w m O Regional
Speaker 1: Association for Hurricane Committee, as the considerations for twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: storm name retirements were not completed this year. Only five
Speaker 1: times in the past twenty five years has a hurricane
Speaker 1: season passed without a storm strong enough that its name
Speaker 1: was retired during that stretch, It's never happened and backed
Speaker 1: back years. The last year that no Storm had its
Speaker 1: name struck from the lists wasteen. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clay. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other topics, visit how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of I
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