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Hopefully this provides clarity about Hurricane Names; I don't have enough time to discuss it on air. If you have any specific hurricane related questions, just comment on this post and I'll provide the answer in another post.
Tropical storms and Hurricanes are given names to provide clarity between forecasters, media and the general public regarding forecasts and warnings. Since these storms can last anywhere between just one day, to longer than a week, there are often more than one storm at a time in the same area. Giving storms names easily identifies each individual storm and reduces the confusion about which storm is being described and tracked (calling them storm 1, hurricane 2, hurricane 3 would get really confusing). Each global region which is affected by tropical cyclones has their own naming schemes and lists, but each area generally uses names of people, flowers, animals or birds or even foods (Which is the case for the Northwest Pacific).
Once a tropical disturbance becomes a tropical storm or hurricane, the National Hurricane Center assigns it a name. The Atlantic basin currently uses a list of both female and male names common to the area. The names used are alphabetical and are on a rotating list over a six year cycle. At the end of the cycle, the list is recycled and the same storm names are used again (as long as the storm names are not retired). If a particular storm causes a significant amount of damage or fatalities, the name may become retired from the list. The retired storm name is then replaced by a name starting with the same letter. If during a hurricane season the number of named storms surpasses the number of storms available on the list, additional storms will take names from the Greek Alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on). This was the case during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
The current list of Atlantic Storm names (try to find your name);
2009
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Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
2010
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter
2011
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney
2012
Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William
2013
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dorian
Erin
Fernand
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Nestor
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
2014
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
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