Find out how hurricanes are named

The northern hemisphere of the planet, especially the United States, every year marked by a series of parades hurricanes and typhoons. Bonnie, Fiona, Ian… Those who follow the news must have heard of one.

In 2022, there were 9 storms sweeping the North Atlantic Ocean, starting with Alex in May. But after all, how are these names chosen? Understand next!

Where do the names of hurricanes come from?

Currently, it is the World Meteorological Organization, an arm of the United Nations (UN), that decides each year on how hurricanes will be known. worldwide.

The tradition began in 1953 through the United States National Hurricane Center. The preference of personal names over numbers or technical terms is to facilitate disclosure in the press.

The terms are random and selected in alphabetical order – as for gender, they are alternate. This year we’ve already passed Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, and most recently, Ian, who reached Category 4 and devastated the east coast of the United States in September last month. . Next up will be Julia.

Lists like this are renewed every six years. So in 2028 we could have a new Georgette or Gaston. This prevents, for example, last year’s Hurricane Ida from being confused with this Ian.

Despite this, we will hardly have a new Katrina: very big disaster names retire, to avoid confusion. In 2005, this storm caused more than 2,000 deaths in the southern United States and devastated the city of New Orleans.

Six years later, the eleventh hurricane of the year – the position of the letter “k” – was named Katia, which caused less fanfare and is expected to be used again next year.

But there is another list, and the difference between them is geographical. The above lists the storms that devastated the Atlantic Ocean. After all, because they are closest to us, they are the ones we are most familiar with by name.

In the Pacific, the logic is the same, but the names are different. In 2022, storms were more abundant on this side of the world, but weaker. Thus, most of them do not have access to the mainstream media.

As a curiosity, we had Agatha that caused some concern and killed 11 people – Blas, Celia, Darby, Estelle, Frank, Georgette, Howard, Ivete, Javier, Kay, Lester, Madeline, Newton and the now-suffering Orlene Mexican. The next, if any, will be Paine.

So what happens if the names on the list run out? If atmospheric activity is huge and the 21 predicted titles – the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used due to the lack of names – meteorologists bet on the Greek alphabet.

Other ways to name hurricanes

These two lists, the Atlantic and the Pacific, are used to name the storms that swept North America, primarily Mexico, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. Other parts of the world use similar logic, but there are some differences.

For example, in Hawaii there are 4 lists of names that are not reset every new year. It also only has 12 names. The region has a calmer atmospheric activity and less incidence of these phenomena.

On the other side of the Pacific, a list of titles was drawn up in a committee organized by the Japan Meteorological Agency and attended by 13 more countries. Name suggestions were collected in 5 lists of 28 words that did not follow alphabetical order.

It’s the Brazilian Navy that chose the names here in the South Atlantic. From May of this year, Arani, Bapo, Carl, Deni, Eçaí, Guará, Iba, Jaguar, Kurumí, Mani, Oquira, Potira, Raoni, Ubá and Yakecan.

While we are vulnerable to other natural disasters such as floods, droughts and even meteorites, Our region is particularly free of phenomena such as the following. hurricanes.

For this reason, the list that was started in 2011 is not complete. 2004’s Catarina Cyclone and 2010’s Storm Anita took place before adoption, and so they’re named from other sources.

Well, did you find the name choice of the hurricanes interesting? Keep following TecMundo for more amazing curios like this one!