Where do hurricane names come from? Why do we give human names to violent, mindless masses of water and wind? And how do we all agree which name to use?
Before the 1940s, only the worst storms were given names. There was the Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893, the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 to name a few.
The practice of using more memorable names didn't begin until 1950. It was when Atlantic tropical hurricanes received official names, although they still weren't human ones. So the 1950 season featured such strangely named storms as
Hurricane Dog, Hurricane Easy and Hurricane Love.
The same list of names was recycled every year, so the 1950-1952 seasons each featured a Hurricane Able through at least Hurricane Fox. That became confusing, so in 1953 the U. S. National Hurricane Center began using female human names, which proved far more successful. Not only did it make storm identification easier, but it helped authorities and news outlets spread warnings.
The first hurricane names were often inspired by forecasters' wives, but in 1979men's names were added to the mix The World Meteorological Organization now monitors the master list of names, which alternates between male and females six lists are rotated annually in the Atlantic. So the 2015names will be used again in 2021. Seventy-eight Atlantic hurricane names have been retired since 1954, including 29 since 2000.
A. Besides, it helped the public pay attention to them.
B. These names were chosen from some familiar words.
C. This naming rule, however, had an obvious weakness.
D. These names of retired hurricanes are silly or unreasonable.
E. But when a hurricane is bad enough, its name can be retired.
F. They were usually based on the place or time of year they made landfall.
G. It is also easier to use names when we have more than one storm to track.
