# Did I Really Miss 4 Hurricanes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811 "2006-08-30T18:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/1 "2006-08-30T18:33:49Z")
In the past hurricanes have been named in alphabetical order. Unless I blacked-out and missed them, this year they skipped from Ernesto to John. Did I really miss hurricanes F, G, H and I? Did they make landfall? Was there any damage or death? Or are hurricanes just given names in random order now? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/2 "2006-08-30T18:38:03Z")
A GQ? Tropical depressions get names, not just hurricanes. Most of them don’t last long, and never make the news. (Or do tropical storms get names - those I think I would have heard of.) Also, storms anywhere in the Atlantic get names, even ones closer to Africa. Cafe Society link: you need to watch the Weather Channel more. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/3 "2006-08-30T19:28:33Z")
They didn’t skip F,G,H, and I. Ernesto is an Atlantic storm, the fifth of this season (after Tropical Storms Alberto, Beryl, Chris, and Debby) John is a Pacific storm, the eleventh of the season, actually, after Tropical Depression Two-E, Tropical Storms Aletta, Emilia, Fabio, and Gilma, and Hurricaines Bud, Carlotta, Daniel, Hector, and Ileana). Pacific hurricaines don’t usually get much attention in the US media, because they usually don’t affect North America. Hurricaine John, which is tracking further east than most Pacific storms, and therefore affecting the western coast of Mexico, is the exception. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/4 "2006-08-30T19:35:48Z")
[All you need to know about tropical storm names](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/5 "2006-08-30T19:36:58Z")
Do typhoons get their own list as well? Ioke wasn’t on the Hurricane name list for the Pacific. I wouldn’t want to be on Wake Island right now! ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/6 "2006-08-30T19:56:32Z")
> [@labtrash](#): > > Ioke wasn’t on the Hurricane name list for the Pacific. It is on List 3 of the Central North Pacific list. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/7 "2006-08-30T19:57:18Z")
Yes. Central Pacific hurricanes get their own names, as well. Here’s a list of all the different hurricane names for the different regions of the world: [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/8 "2006-08-30T20:38:52Z")
John’s over in the Pacific. We’ve only gotten up to E on the Atlantic side. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/9 "2006-08-31T00:26:13Z")
I asked the same dumb question. > **[John?, Who's John?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=386216)** > > Here’s a list from the National Hurricane Center, with the names of possible hurricanes in 2006. We are dealing with ERNESTO right now, and I am reading that JOHN is now hitting Mexico. What happened to F, G, H and I? Why isn’t JOHN even listed? ... ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/10 "2006-08-31T00:47:17Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > I asked the same dumb question. > > [John?, Who's John? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=386216) Well it may have been a dumb question but I’m smarter for having asked it. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/11 "2006-08-31T04:08:29Z")
It’s already been answered, but this belongs in GQ, anyway, so off it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/12 "2006-08-31T11:55:39Z")
Actually, the hurricane season has been so slow, the meteorologists started naming whatever they saw! 😉 It’s true! The tabloids said so! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/13 "2006-08-31T12:25:47Z")
Nope. They are named in alphabetical order, with certain letters skipped. However, two points need to be made: The Weather Bureau names **tropical storms** , not hurricanes. They number every tropical depression, i.e., every low pressure area that forms within the “cradle of hurricanes” area in the southern North Atlantic, and assign names from the current one of the six rotating lists whenever one of those depressions gets organized enough to have rotating winds of “storm force” – in the high 30s, IIRC 39 MPH. Only when those winds get up to “hurricane force” – around 70 MPH, does it move from “Tropical Storm Bertram” to “Hurricane Bertram” – keeping the same name as it had as a tropical storm. So if F was Francesca this year, there was a T.S. Francesca, but probably never a Hurricane Francesca. And the majority of these storms stay out to sea or at worst hit islands. Second, there are three lists, for Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Western Pacific, in use simultaneously. So you might have Ernesto trucking along off the Georgia coast, while Iole is taking aim at Wake Island, as is the case today – the names coming from separate lists and representing different sequences of storms. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-really-miss-4-hurricanes/370811/14 "2006-08-31T19:46:00Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Well it may have been a dumb question but I’m smarter for having asked it. True, that, but, I read a cite and failed to look at the right side of the page., where lo and behold was the list of Pacific names. :smack: 😃