Katrina, Sandy, Andrew — some names are inextricably linked with a number of the most devastating hurricanes in current U.S. historical past. However how do hurricanes and different tropical storms get their names?
First, let’s begin with how such storms are outlined. Hurricanes are tropical cyclones with sustained winds of greater than 74 mph (119 km/h) that develop east of the worldwide date line. They’re known as typhoons west of the worldwide date line, and so they’re referred to as cyclones within the Indian Ocean and Australia. All are coordinated and named by a single physique, the World Meteorological Group (WMO), which has a separate title record for typhoons.
To get a reputation, a storm should maintain winds of no less than 39 mph (63 km/h) over a one-minute interval. If it fails to take action, it receives a quantity as an alternative of a reputation and is known as a tropical despair.
The WMO additionally maintains a record of 21 storm names that it rotates each six years. The Atlantic storms record for 2025, for example, specifies that Andrea and Barry are subsequent in line, the identical names of storms that final handed via the Atlantic in 2019. Within the subsequent hurricane season, the WMO will flip the genders of the names, alternating between them evenly, mentioned Lourdes Avilés, affiliate provost at Plymouth State College and creator of “Taken by Storm, 1938: A Social and Meteorological Historical past of the Nice New England Hurricane”a guide (American Meteorological Society, 2013) in regards to the historical past of hurricane naming.
If there are greater than 21 named storms in a hurricane season, there’s a backup record, which the WMO has had to make use of solely twice, in 2005 and 2020. It was manufactured from Greek letters (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon), however in 2020, the WMO changed it with one other record of supplemental names.
If a storm is especially harmful, like hurricane Katrina or Fiona, the nation the place the hurricane made landfall can request that the WMO retire the title. The group then votes on a brand new one to switch it, selecting a reputation that begins with the identical letter of the alphabet. So, even when your title does not seem on the record, there’s an opportunity that in a future WMO vote, your title may find yourself on it.
Your title is extra more likely to be related to a well-known storm or a hurricane if it begins with a letter between G and R, which traces up with June and August, when atmospheric situations are optimum for producing tropical storms.
For instance, hurricane Ian emerged as a tropical wave within the Caribbean on Sept. 23, 2022, earlier than it turned Tropical Despair 9 with sustained winds just under 39 mph (63 km/h). When it reached winds of 45 mph (72 km/h), it received the title Tropical Storm Ian, changing into the ninth named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. Then, it intensified right into a hurricane on Sept. 26, 2022, reaching Class 4 earlier than hitting Florida and South Carolina days later. The U.S. requested the WMO to retire the title Ian, changing it with Idris, which now seems on the record.
Historical past of hurricane names
A tall, stammering meteorologist arrived on the Nineteenth-century lecture corridor along with his papers falling round him. His title was Clement Wragge, although his colleagues typically referred to as him “Inclement.”
Within the Nineteenth century, Spanish sailors named storms after saints, based on hurricane historian Ivan R. Tannehill. Hurricane San Felipe hit the nation in 1876, however one other hurricane of the identical title appeared in 1928. The Spanish additionally had an issue when two tropical storms occurred on the identical day, nonetheless.
Wragge had an answer to this downside: He would consult with northern storms after native politicians he disliked, joking that the officers had been “inflicting nice misery” or “wandering aimlessly in regards to the Pacific” when a tropical storm got here calling.
“It is a conference we ought to think about bringing again,” joked Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT and creator of “Divine Wind: The Historical past and Science of Hurricanes (Oxford College Press, 2005).
For the southern storms, Wragge began naming them after figures from Greek and Roman mythology. However when he ran out, he moved on to naming them after Pacific Island girls who had caught his eye. He’s at this time credited as the primary meteorologist to start naming storms after girls, based on Tannehill.
Throughout World Battle II, U.S. pilots picked up Wragge’s naming practices. The Air Drive started naming tropical cyclones after their grandmas, wives and girlfriends again dwelling. “There have been, like, a number of hurricanes referred to as Carol and issues like that,” Avilés mentioned. “[It was used] in each methods to honor and to be sexist in opposition to girls.”
Later, scientists nervous that gendering hurricanes may need lethal penalties. A 2014 examine even prompt that the general public sees hurricanes with historically male names as extra harmful — main them to take extra precautions — which has led hurricanes with feminine names to kill extra individuals general.
Nevertheless, the examine has been extensively criticized resulting from a serious flaw: Hurricanes solely began receiving male names in 1979, however the 2014 examine used 60 years’ of hurricane damages, skewing the info. (Actually, for those who take away Hurricane Sandy from the dataset, male hurricanes transform deadlier general.)
What’s extra, hurricanes have gotten far much less lethal through the years, largely due to the satellites that permit us to foretell the trail of hurricanes.
“It has been a fantastic and unsung success story,” Emanuel mentioned. “Earlier than the satellite tv for pc period, you could possibly have storms out within the open ocean that nobody ever noticed or measured. They only went undetected. We have gotten higher at making deductions at storm deductions of storm depth, although we’re nonetheless not that good at it.”
