How hurricanes get their names. Why are hurricanes given human names?
Photo: NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center
Hurricane Irma, which struck the Caribbean islands 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 spoke about how and why hurricanes get their names.
Why do hurricanes need names?
Initially, the name is given to a storm that later weakens or develops into a hurricane. Nameless storms and hurricanes would make life much more difficult for meteorologists, researchers, ship captains, rescue workers, and... ordinary people. Names facilitate communication, which means they increase the level of 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 naming system came into being?
Hurricanes were often named after saints. For example, the hurricane that reached Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, St. Anne's Day, was called St. Anne. Sometimes the name was chosen to be the name of the area that suffered the most. And sometimes the name was dictated by the shape of the hurricane. This is how Hurricane Pin 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 Q, U, X, Y and Z - they are not used. The 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.
What to do if all the letters in the alphabet are gone?
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 hurricanes are called female names, and when - male?
At first, hurricanes were exclusively “women.” Military meteorologists began assigning female names to natural disasters 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 meteorologists already “used up” this year?
For the Atlantic Coast, the list of hurricane names for 2017 is: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Emily, Franklin, Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katya, Lee, Maria, Ophelia, Philip, 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 received their names. That is, 9 more names from the 2017 list remained unused.
Can a hurricane's name "retire"?
Maybe if the elements were too destructive. In this case, using the same name again may be too painful for those affected. For example, there will no longer be a hurricane named Katrina. It was removed from the list of names and will never be used again. There is a possibility that the same fate awaits the names Harvey and Irma.
Natural elements are beyond your control human management. And when they come alarm messages from one or another part of the globe about a tornado, typhoon, hurricane, and we hear beautiful names, which have nothing to do with the nature of the natural disaster. Have you ever wondered why hurricanes are called by female names? This tradition has a rationale that we are about to find out today.
Arbitrary naming of hurricanes
In order to avoid informational confusion about hurricanes (which can occur simultaneously in different parts of the planet), it was customary to call them not by their serial number, hurricane 544, hurricane 545, and so on, but by names.
The earliest names came from the location of the disaster, or from special dates or events when it happened. For example, in July 1825, people first started talking about Hurricane Santa Anna, which was named after the saint in Puerto Rico. It was on that day when the raging anticyclone broke out that the saint was honored in the city, it was her holiday, her calendar day.
The hurricane was christened with a woman's name. Do you think that it was then that the countdown began with this particular coordinate system? From that period of time, a tradition began to arbitrarily give names to tornadoes, typhoons and hurricanes, without a clear system or affiliation with anything.
Interesting facts about typhoon naming
An interesting fact in the name of the element: at that time there was a hurricane, which was very similar in shape to a pin. This is where his name came from. So several similar pins natural Disasters received their name, with assignment of serial numbers in addition.
Another interesting method that an Australian meteorologist developed: he named hurricanes after politicians who voted against funding for meteorological research.
There is a peculiarity in the nature of the manifestations of these natural disasters. Or more precisely: they have their own pattern. Most often, tropical typhoons occur in the autumn, when there is a difference temperature regime between water and air. And also in the summer, when the ocean temperature is highest. In winter and spring they hardly form, or are extremely rare.
Why are hurricanes in America called by women's names?
Perhaps the first typhoon naming system is hidden here. beautiful names, belonging to the fair half of humanity. Military personnel in the United States who served in meteorological units made it a tradition to name the uncontrollable elements after the names of their spouses and their female relatives. During this period, a list of names was first compiled that were assigned to tornadoes in alphabetical order. Names with easy to remember pronunciation were chosen. When the list ended, it began again.
This is a simple story about why hurricanes are given female names. She formed the basis new system, which began to be used not only in the USA, but also in many other countries.
The emergence of systematization of tornado names
Everyone knows that the continents of Northern and South America More than the rest of the world, it suffers from floods, typhoons and tornadoes. There are not even a dozen American films dedicated to this natural phenomenon.
Since 1953, thanks to the idea of American employees, a procedure for naming the uncontrollable elements has emerged. Remembering their women, perhaps in their honor or as a joke, but nevertheless, this was the reason why hurricanes are given female names. The list, which was compiled of 84 names, was used in its entirety for a year. After all, about 120 air cyclones form on our planet every year.
The first month of the year corresponds to names starting with the first letter of the alphabet, the second - to the second, and so on. The year 1979 marked a new stage in the tornado naming system. The list of female names was supplemented with male ones. It is worth noting that several tropical storms can form in one water basin at once, which means that there will also be several names. For example, for the Atlantic Ocean there are 6 alphabetical lists, each containing twenty-one names. If it happens that there are more than twenty-one hurricanes this year, then the subsequent names of the elements will be in the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Delta, etc.).
When are male names used?
As we have already found out, several tornadoes can form simultaneously in one area of a water basin.
But why do hurricanes have female and male names? After all, it would seem that everything is simple - just add other simple but sonorous names of the fair sex to the list. The fact is that the lists are compiled by the Regional Association's Hurricane Committee, which has concluded that gender is not an ethical basis for naming hurricanes. Therefore, since 1979, not only women's, but also men's names have become part of the list of future hurricanes.
Eastern commitment to naming
The Japanese don't understand why hurricanes are called by women's names. According to them, a woman is a gentle and fragile creature. And by their nature they are unable to bear catastrophic disasters. Therefore, tornadoes that occur in the northern or western part of the Pacific Ocean will never be named after people. Despite the tradition of naming storms, they are characterized by the names of inanimate objects: plants, trees, products, and there are also names of animals.
Who names tornadoes?
As previously noted, when compiling a list of future tornadoes, attention is paid to simple and sonorous names. This criterion has important. Since when exchanging information about a storm between stations, naval bases in bad weather conditions, cumbersome and complex names are inappropriate. Moreover, in written and oral speech Words that are easy to pronounce are less prone to mistakes and confusion. After all, several tornadoes can occur simultaneously, moving in different directions along one coast.
This is why hurricanes are called with feminine names that are simple and easy to pronounce.
There is which is responsible for naming tornadoes, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and tropical storms. They have been using the existing system since 1953. Using names from past lists that have not previously been used, new lists are formed each year. For example, names that were not used in 2005 move to 2011, and those remaining from 2011 to 2017. Thus, lists of future typhoons are generated for every 6 years in advance.
By 2017 formed new list, consisting of 6 lists of names of hurricanes that await our planet. This list is planned until 2022. Each list begins with the letter A and proceeds alphabetically. Each list contains twenty-one names.
Names starting with Q, U, X, Y, Z cannot become future ones. Since there are few of them and they are difficult to hear.
However, some tornadoes are so destructive in their power that his name is removed from the list once and for all. An example is Hurricane Katrina, which swept through the southeastern shores North America and Caribbean countries. This is the most destructive typhoon in US history, the consequences of which were simply catastrophic. And this is the case where the name was removed from the list of hurricane names. So that the memories of the elements will not be painful when the turn comes to this designation again.
The opinion of ordinary people about the names of tornadoes
Not everyone knows why hurricanes are called by women's names. There is an anecdote on this topic literally in one line. The answer is immediately clear: “Hurricanes are called by women’s names because they are just as violent. And when they leave, they take with them your house, car and everything you have left.”
Hurricanes are usually given names. This is done so as not to confuse them, especially when several tropical cyclones are active in the same area of the world, so that there are no misunderstandings in weather forecasting, in the issuance of storm alerts and warnings.
Before the first system for naming hurricanes, hurricanes received their names haphazardly and randomly. Sometimes a hurricane was named after the saint on whose day the disaster occurred. For example, Hurricane Santa Anna got its name, which reached the city of Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, St. Anna. The name could be given to the area that suffered the most from the disaster. Sometimes the name was determined by the very form of development of the hurricane. Thus, for example, hurricane “Pin” No. 4 got its name in 1935, the shape of its trajectory resembled the mentioned object.
The original method of naming hurricanes, invented by Australian meteorologist Clement Wragg, is known: he named typhoons after members of parliament who refused to vote on the allocation of loans for meteorological research.
The names of cyclones became widespread during the Second World War. U.S. Air Force and Navy meteorologists were monitoring typhoons in the northwest Pacific Ocean. 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 behind this list was to use names that are short, simple and easy to remember.
By 1950, the first system in hurricane names appeared. First they chose the phonetic army alphabet, and in 1953 they decided to return to women's names. Subsequently, the assignment of female names to hurricanes became part of the system and was extended to other tropical cyclones - Pacific typhoons, storms of the Indian Ocean, Timor Sea and the north-west coast of Australia. The naming procedure itself had to be streamlined. Thus, 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 chosen were short, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. There was a list of 84 female names for typhoons. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), together with the US National Weather Service, expanded this list to also include male names.
Since there are several basins where hurricanes form, there are also several lists of names. For Atlantic basin hurricanes there are 6 alphabetical lists, each with 21 names, which are 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.
If a typhoon is particularly destructive, the name assigned to it is removed from the list and replaced by another. So the name Katrina is forever crossed off the list of meteorologists.
In the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, names of animals, flowers, trees and even foods are reserved for typhoons: Nakri, Yufung, Kanmuri, Kopu. The Japanese refused to give female names to deadly typhoons because they consider women to be gentle and quiet creatures. And the tropical cyclones of the northern Indian Ocean remain nameless.
Hurricane Matthew kills hundreds of people along the coast Caribbean Sea and in the eastern United States, thousands were left homeless.
The next hurricanes to hit these areas will be named Nicole and Otto. Who gives them these names?
Why do hurricanes need “human” names?
It turns out that hurricanes have been given names for the last 100 years. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), hurricanes are given "human" names to help spread awareness and avoid confusion among meteorologists, researchers, emergency workers, ship captains, the media and residents in disaster areas.
Why are these names chosen and not others?
About 100 years ago, storms were given arbitrary names. But one day a hurricane raging in the Atlantic Ocean destroyed a ship belonging to Antje. That hurricane was called “Antje”. Then in the mid-20th century, hurricanes began to be given feminine names.
Meteorologists decided to move to a more organized and efficient system. They systematized the choice of name according to the military phonetic alphabet.
Thus, if the first hurricane occurred in a year, it was named with the letter “A”, the second with the letter “B”, and so on. By the end of the 20th century, male names were also added to the list.
Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic region:
If we talk about Matthew, this is the 13th cyclone that passed through the Caribbean Sea region, Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic in 2016. Lists of names in this region are formed five years in advance, so in 2022 the list of 2016 will be in effect again. In each year, 21 names are recorded for each letter of the alphabet, except Q, U, X, Y and Z.
Names of storms that caused severe damage are removed from the list and replaced with other names. For example, this was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or Hurricane Sandy in 2012. We won't see them on the lists anymore.
It is customary to name hurricanes to avoid misunderstandings when forecasting weather. Read about how exactly names for elements are chosen in the material of the Moscow 24 portal.
Where does the wind blow from
Weather anomalies began to receive names back in the early 20th century, when nameless elements made weather forecasting difficult because some of their trajectories intersected during hurricane season. Then meteorologists began to use names for hurricanes geographical coordinates or the name of the saint on whose day the disaster occurred.
In addition, until 1950, hurricanes were assigned four digit numbers, the first two digits of which indicated the year, the second two - the serial number of the hurricane in the current year.
Hurricanes began to be named during World War II. Members of the United States Air Force and Navy, tracking typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, gave the anomalies the names of their wives and lovers. But already in 1953 this method was officially approved. And since 1978, hurricanes began to be given male names too.
Japan uses its own system of naming natural disasters; hurricanes are given the names of animals, flowers, trees and products: Nakri, Yufung, Kanmuri, Kopu. Here they abandoned the idea of giving typhoons female names, because women in Japan are considered gentle and quiet creatures.
List of bad weather
Every year, a list of hurricane names is maintained, which includes 21 names, based on the number of all letters in english alphabet(except for the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z, which are not used). The anomalies are named in order: the first hurricane of the season is called by a name that begins with the letter A, the second - with the letter B, and so on. One such list is designed for a year, and after six years you can use the first list again and repeat the names of hurricanes.
If the letters in the alphabet run out, which is extremely rare, then the 22nd hurricane is named from the first letter of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and others.
On currently The 2017 list of hurricane names for the Atlantic Coast is: Arlene, Brett, Cindy, Emily, Franklin, Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katya, Lee, Maria, Ophelia, Philip, Rina, Sin, Tammy, Vince and Whitney.
Hurricanes in retirement
If a typhoon “distinguished itself” and became too destructive and claimed lives, then its name will not be used again, as this will remind the victims of the horror they experienced. For example, the name of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005 and literally washed away the city, or the name of Hurricane Charlie, which struck Florida in 2004, causing billions of dollars in damage to the state and killing 16 people.
Let us recall that after Hurricane Irma, which has already reached its maximum power category five.
Maria's wind speed is 260 km/h. The hurricane is located 70 km north of the French island of Martinique,
Due to the onset of the disaster, an alarm has already been declared on the island of Saint Lucia, the British and American Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda.
Hurricane season lasts in the Atlantic from early June to late November. Periodically, ocean storms turn into tornadoes. An element gets its name if the wind at the epicenter reaches a speed of up to 17.4 m/s. When the wind speed is 33 m/s or more, the atmospheric phenomenon receives the status of a hurricane.
