# Why do we have an ''official'' hurricane season? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660 "2012-05-21T22:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/1 "2012-05-21T22:11:59Z")
There must be some reason, bureaucratic perhaps - why do we have an ‘‘official’’ hurricane season? ---
**Author:** ![President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/President_Johnny_Gentle)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/2 "2012-05-21T22:30:15Z")
I think “official” is a bad word to use here, although it’s common. It’s probably better to say that NOAA (and/or similar organizations, I’m not entirely sure) have designated a certain time period as “hurricane season”. “Official” then just denotes that it’s a governmental organization that has set the dates. As to [why they would do this](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/G1.html). ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/3 "2012-05-21T22:34:56Z")
> [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](#): > > As to [why they would do this](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/G1.html). From the above link: > [@](#): > > The Atlantic hurricane season is officially from 1 June to 30 November. There is nothing magical in these dates, and hurricanes have occurred outside of these six months, **but these dates were selected to encompass over 97% of tropical activity**. June 1st has been the traditional start of the Atlantic hurricane season for decades. However, the end date has been slowly shifted outward, from October 31st to November 15th until its current date of November 30th. **(Bolding mine.)** ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/4 "2012-05-21T22:35:14Z")
So that people can still play fantasy hurricane in the off season? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/5 "2012-05-21T22:37:01Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > So that people can still play fantasy hurricane in the off season? Close. It’s to separate the spring training hurricane numbers from the regular season numbers. It’s not fair to judge an August hurricane by the damage done in April. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/6 "2012-05-22T03:16:54Z")
I thought it’s to let hurricanes know the most convenient time for them to arrive. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/7 "2012-05-22T03:29:24Z")
The first named tropical storm of the season developed off South Carolina this weekend. It is named Alberto and is the official start of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. If we get more early storms, that “official” start date will be moved up ans the end date has in recent years - from October 31st to November 15th to the current date of November 30th. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/8 "2012-05-22T03:40:26Z")
One benefit to designating a hurricane season is to provide an advance and predictable warning system to people in areas where hurricane landfall is possible. In Hawaii, there are signs inside the city buses year-round that tell you to be prepared by stocking up items for your hurricane preparedness kit, such as batteries, bottled fresh water, and nonperishable food. (A cynical person might see this as a way to predictibly and consistently drive up demand for those items.) Hurricane season there is June through November. ---
**Author:** ![Rampant\_Coypu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/439d5e/32.png) [@Rampant\_Coypu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rampant_Coypu)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/9 "2012-05-22T06:12:23Z")
And if you live in a hurricane prone area it marks the time when the grocery stores slip the hurricane tracking chart into your grocery bags. Don’t they do that where you live? Each grocery chain allies with a TV station and gives you a cool map and guide in May. Fiesta, Kroger, and HEB do this, but Wal Mart doesn’t. I did not know that an Alberto had already formed. That’s scary. Are we due for a repeat of 2004 with a city-killing Katrina and a chaos causing Rita? Or will it be like 2008, with a few hard hits, the worst of which was Ike. Or will Alberto be a freak storm like Allison in 2001? You should fear storms like Allison. It is the only storm to have its name retired without reaching hurricane strength. It was that bad. I lived through it. Worse than Ike in some ways though I almost got killed during Ike. Mitch in the late 90’s was pretty bad too, but it mostly killed brown people and has largely been forgotten. The 2004 and 2008 hurricane seasons make it look like there might not really be such a thing as a hurricane season. The Atlantic Conveyor current is getting weaker as it is diluted by glacial melts from Scandinavia and Greenland. That means more hot water is going to hang out on the Atlantic coast of the southern US and things will be even hotter in the Gulf of Mexico. I think they better prepare longer lists of storm names. Back in 2004 they resorted to Greek letters for winter tropical storms. I think 2004 and 2008 may become the new normal. Could it be Global Warming? ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/10 "2012-05-22T12:22:14Z")
> [@Rampant\_Coypu](#): > > I did not know that an Alberto had already formed. That’s scary. Are we due for a repeat of 2004 with a city-killing Katrina and a chaos causing Rita? \ > I think they better prepare longer lists of storm names. Back in 2004 they resorted to Greek letters for winter tropical storms. I think 2004 and 2008 may become the new normal. Having lived through Katrina, it is a sensitive subject. The 2005 hurricane season remains one for the record books. Katrina, Rita, Wilma etc. From weatherunderground: Seasonal Records Set in 2005 Most tropical storms: 28. Old record: 21 in 1933. Most hurricanes: 15. Old record: 12 in 1969. Most Category 5 hurricanes: 4 (Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma). Emily was upgraded to Category 5 upon re-analysis. Old record: 2 in 1960 and 1961. Most hurricane names to be retired: 5 (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, Wilma, and possibly others). Previous record: 4 in 1955, 1995, and 2004. Most major hurricanes to hit the U.S.: 4 (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma). Previous record: 3 in 1893, 1909, 1933, 1954, and 2004. Most damage ever recorded in a hurricane season: $150 billion. Previous record: approximately $50 billion dollars (normalized to 2005 dollars) set in 1992 and 2004. Highest Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index: 245. Previous record: 243 (1950). Average for a season is 93. Latest end to a hurricane season: January 6 Previous record: January 5, for the 1954-55 hurricane season. It was quite a year. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/11 "2012-05-22T12:59:08Z")
Was just thinking about politics and hurricanes. Tampa has the RNC in late August and Charlotte has the DNC in early September. Both places have a decent chance to be affected by tropical storms in that time frame. That could be fun. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/12 "2012-05-22T13:09:14Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Having lived through Katrina, it is a sensitive subject. The 2005 hurricane season remains one for the record books. Katrina, Rita, Wilma etc. From weatherunderground: > Seasonal Records Set in 2005 > > Most tropical storms: 28. Old record: 21 in 1933. > Most hurricanes: 15. Old record: 12 in 1969. > Most Category 5 hurricanes: 4 (Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma). Emily was upgraded to Category 5 upon re-analysis. Old record: 2 in 1960 and 1961. > Most hurricane names to be retired: 5 (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, Wilma, and possibly others). Previous record: 4 in 1955, 1995, and 2004. > Most major hurricanes to hit the U.S.: 4 (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma). Previous record: 3 in 1893, 1909, 1933, 1954, and 2004. > Most damage ever recorded in a hurricane season: $150 billion. Previous record: approximately $50 billion dollars (normalized to 2005 dollars) set in 1992 and 2004. > Highest Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index: 245. Previous record: 243 (1950). Average for a season is 93. > Latest end to a hurricane season: January 6 Previous record: January 5, for the 1954-55 hurricane season. > > It was quite a year. For Florida, the year before was much worse. We had Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne all hit. Charley was the fourth costliest of all time with $14 billion in damage, and at the time was the second costliest, later to be surpassed. In 2005 Katrina hit Florida before it hit Louisiana, but didn’t do nearly as much damage here. Sadly crossing Florida didn’t do much to take the wind out of her sails before she hit the northern Gulf Coast. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/13 "2012-05-22T13:15:45Z")
At Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane season is officially extended. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/14 "2012-05-22T13:56:54Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Was just thinking about politics and hurricanes. Tampa has the RNC in late August and Charlotte has the DNC in early September. Both places have a decent chance to be affected by tropical storms in that time frame. That could be fun. Insert “hot air” joke here. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/15 "2012-05-22T14:00:47Z")
If they didn’t have seasons, how would they know when to restart the alphabet? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/16 "2012-05-22T14:24:17Z")
greeting card companies did it. every day, every week, every month has to be something. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/17 "2012-05-22T14:41:56Z")
They retire hurricane names?!? I didn’t know that. That’s really interesting, so there are busts of the hurricanes somewhere in the Hall of Fame? ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/18 "2012-05-22T14:55:03Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > They retire hurricane names?!? > > I didn’t know that. That’s really interesting, so there are busts of the hurricanes somewhere in the Hall of Fame? Yup. [Tropical Cyclone Names](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml) > [@](#): > > The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/19 "2012-05-22T15:03:57Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > They retire hurricane names?!? Yeah, and it’s pretty obvious why they do it. We would have had a “Hurricane Katrina 2011” and a “Hurricane Andrew 2010”, rather than Hurricanes Katia and Alex (the names that replaced Katrina and Andrew in the 6-year rotation). The list of retired names is given on the NOAA website. [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames\_history.shtml](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660/20 "2012-05-22T15:16:40Z")
> [@Rampant\_Coypu](#): > > … You should fear storms like Allison. It is the only storm to have its name retired without reaching hurricane strength. It was that bad. … Details, please? I don’t know anything about Allison’s damage, and didn’t know it hadn’t even reached hurricane strength. > [@Rampant\_Coypu](#): > > … Mitch in the late 90’s was pretty bad too, but it mostly killed brown people and has largely been forgotten. I’ll admit it. I LOL’d. And yes, I _am_ going straight to hell. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-an-official-hurricane-season/622660.md?page=2)