What if we run out of hurricane names?

We reached an “R”-named hurricane early in the season, and the season doesn’t end until November 30th. That means we only have 3 more names scheduled for the season, (s, t and v… they skip u, x, y and z) and we are likely to surpass that. So what will they use for storm names?

They will start over with “A”.

Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta

and so forth

They don’t skip W, so there’s four more.

Here’s a list of names through 2010.

They retire/replace names if they cause extensive damage. Basically, a country can request the World Meteorlogical Organization (WMO, they’re the ones who use weather modification to bring about the New World Order----KIDDING!!!)

Here’s what they do when they run out of names. They use the greek alphabet in the Atlantic and East Pacific. So we might see an Alpha or a Beta this year.

Ah, I see Bricker already nailed the greek thing.

Oh, and I meant to type a country can request the World Meteorlogical Organization retire a name.

I’m guessing Katrina will get retired.

But will she receive her social security checks?

:smiley:

It doesn’t take much to get a name retired. Basically if the hurricane causes any substantial damage that causes insurance companies to pay out anything, then the name gets retired. It makes it easier to sort out claims.

There was one Hurricane Bob and it got retired and it barely made it to hurricane status, but it did a fair amount of damage to coastal areas of the Northeast as a tropical storm.

Huh. I always figured they’d use a double name system. Making Hurricane Ella-Mae cause to flee to the Himalayas.

Why do they skip U, X, Y, & Z?

They make the lists for (IIRC) ten years at a time. You try coming up with ten names that begin with X.

Allison was retired after flooding Houston and it was only a Tropical Storm.

From An Arky’s link above

Q, U, X, Y, and Z and skipped because there aren’t too many names that begin with those letters.

(Lessee: Quentin and Quincy are all I can think of for Q. Ursula is the only name I can think of for U, and Xavier is the only X. I can’t think of any common names beginning with Y, and Z is pretty much restricted to Zachary and Zebediah (sp?) and varients like Zack and Zeb.)

BTW, when did the practice of naming hurricanes start, anyway? The story I heard was that meteorologists starting naming hurricanes after their wives and girlfriends as an in-joke. Eventually, a standard list of names was developed, although it was years before they started adding male names to the list.

We should lobby the appropriate body to put our Doper mods and personalities on the list.

I love the idea of Hurricanes named

wolf meister, Polycarp, Shagnasty, Bricker, bibliophage, QED, samclem, Eve, xash, Twickter, DrMatrix, Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, Cecil, Cal Meacham, Gaudere, AmazonFloozyGodess, MEBuckner, SamStone, tomndebb, C K Dexter Haven, Ukulele Ike, Czarcasm. TVeblen, Cajun Man, Skip Magic, Lynn Bodoni, Giraffe.

Tuba Diva is at the very top of my list, but I haven’t hear her rattling any cages recently. I hope she’s still with us.

Feel free to add names to taste (or in bad taste, if you like).

Damn! That’s
Twickster.

NHC FAQ

Actually, the names run on a six year cycle. Any unretired names from this year will be used again in 2011.

Zev Steinhardt

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20050919/sc_space/hurricanecentermayrunoutofnames