Even more hurricanes

[ToSeek]

New Hurricane Forecast Calls for Busy October

The forecasters expect three named tropical storms, two hurricanes, one major hurricane during October.

If that doesn't count Stan, three more named storms would mark the first time ever the hurricane name list has been exhausted.

[bearcub]

That would be the primary list wouldn't it? They start with the Greek alphabet once that list is used up. Still, busy season indeed.

[pghnative]

Currently, hurricane names repeat every 5 years, but they take a name out of the rotation if the named hurricane is very distructive. Hence, no more Hurricane Camille, Andrew or (presumably) Katrina.

If Hurricane Alpha devestates a major city, they can't really take the name "Alpha" out of rotation. I wonder what they'd do?

[Donnie B.]

Currently, hurricane names repeat every 5 years, but they take a name out of the rotation if the named hurricane is very distructive. Hence, no more Hurricane Camille, Andrew or (presumably) Katrina.

If Hurricane Alpha devestates a major city, they can't really take the name "Alpha" out of rotation. I wonder what they'd do?

Why couldn't they?

[pghnative]

What would they replace it with? It's one thing to replace "Camille" with "Charley", but how do you make a substitution when the order is "Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta", etc... "Alpha", "Brenda", "Gamma", "Delta" looks pretty strange in my book.

[pghnative]

Currently, hurricane names repeat every 5 years,

Edit: This is actually every 6 years.

[Taks]

If that doesn't count Stan, three more named storms would mark the first time ever the hurricane name list has been exhausted.

well, the name list is only 50 years old...
taks

[Donnie B.]

What would they replace it with? It's one thing to replace "Camille" with "Charley", but how do you make a substitution when the order is "Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta", etc... "Alpha", "Brenda", "Gamma", "Delta" looks pretty strange in my book.

But they could just drop it from the sequence entirely: "Alpha", "Gamma", etc.

Presumably we won't reach the Greek storms very often, and when we do a name will be retired only rarely. Unless Glom is wrong about global warming, that is; and if so, we'll probably need something to follow the Greek names anyway.

[Argos]

I see no trouble in just dropping "alpha".

[ToSeek]

We could gradually switch to the Hebrew alphabet: aleph, beth, seth, etc.

[publiusr]

I think they could use names from HPLs mythos.
Azathoth, Byatis...

[snarkophilus]

I think they could use names from HPLs mythos.
Azathoth, Byatis...

Imagine the damage caused by hurricane Cthulhu! Mass insanity coupled with a 500 meter storm surge....

[TriangleMan]

Hurricane Cthulhu, a storm that man was not meant to know of . . .

[Maksutov]

Look out when Hurricane Tango Uniform approaches! :surprised

[Wolverine]

... and that's no Bravo Sierra.

[Lord Jubjub]

Well, we are at the 1/3 mark in October. Two Cat 1 hurricanes (Stan and Vince) and a tropical storm (Tammy).

Fitting that the record breaking storm (in terms of names used) should go to the strangest of the season. Looks like Gibralter is in for a soaking!

One further note. . .even if names had been used as far back as 1851, we still would not have needed to go beyond the current list in any year. In 1933, they would have reached the 'W' storm.

[pghnative]

I wonder what the percentage of "found" storms was back in 1851? Probably not 100%.

[publiusr]

Here is one for the stange column. Take a look at the book Divine Wind, and look at a certain piece of art and how it looks like the symbol of the hurricane used on weather maps...

[parallaxicality]

What would they replace it with? It's one thing to replace "Camille" with "Charley", but how do you make a substitution when the order is "Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta", etc... "Alpha", "Brenda", "Gamma", "Delta" looks pretty strange in my book.

My vote: Hebrew letters. Alpha becomes aleph, beta becomes beth and so on.

EDIT: Oops! Sorry ToSeek! My eyes must have skipped over your post!

[Lord Jubjub]

Mark my words, we will have Tropical Storm (possibly Hurricane) Wilma by the end of next week. (Hey, I'm a weather geek!)

[Sam5]

Hurricane Cthulhu, a storm that man was not meant to know of . . .

How about using Aztec names?

Axochiapan

Xayacatlan

Yeloixtlahuacan

Juxtlahuaca

Malinaltepec

Cuatzoquitengo

Xochiltenango

[ChromeStar]

Hi guys

My vote: Hebrew letters. Alpha becomes aleph, beta becomes beth and so on.

By the way Beth is not hebrew nor is seth etc..

It starts: Aleph, bet, gimmel, dalet, he, vav, ziyen, chet, tet, yod, caf etc...

heres a link if you like: www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm

Why not just give hurricanes names and numbers i.e. alpha 2-10- 2005
or alpha 10984HW or what ever...

<ChromeStar>

if you are interested in climate change and weather, visit my signature (the bottom link).

[cyswxman]

I'll see if we can use names off the BAUT!!

[Argos]

I&#180;ll start next season then. I promise to be nice.

[mugaliens]

New Hurricane Forecast Calls for Busy October.

And yet again, precisely two years later!

Well, almost precisely. It's a day earlier...

[Kullat Nunu]

If Melissa was the last storm of this year, this season's activity would remain less than average even though there has already been two Category 5 hurricanes. But since that isn't likely and the actual activity will be higher. Of course, 2007 will be nowhere near 2005.

[Romanus]

I think Gray and his team are wide of the mark; this season has consistently been less active than their forecast; September is normally the most active month, but shear seemed fairly high, and as the season drags on it will only get worse. I think the final numbers will be just about average, maybe even a little under.

While I admire his team's work (and I've followed it for years), I do miss the days when he issued his last update at the beginning of August and just bit the bullet until the end of the season, instead of issuing new forecasts monthly to get closer to the mark.

[Fortunate]

Romanus,
We in Miami hope you are right. There has been a very large amount of shear in the Atlantic, shear which has chopped up most of the tropical waves coming from Africa. Meanwhile, though, conditions in the Carribean and the Gulf seem to have been favorable (from the hurricanes' point of view) and may become more favorable because of the strengthening La Nina. In the past, a lot of late season storms have formed in the Carribean (Mitch, Wilma, etc.), so we still may see some of those this year.

[Kullat Nunu]

There's been a lot of activity recently but no storms have been able to develop because of the high wind shear.

[Lord Jubjub]

Or if they do develop, they either take a westerly course (in which case they blow up to a Cat 5) or they head north and get shredded.