2007 Hurricanes And Their Names
Why do the hurricanes have names
Since 1953, the
National Hurricane Center (USA) has been giving names to the major tropical cyclone storms (commonly known as the hurricanes).
As using names is much more natural for us, people, than using the latitude/longitude coordinates, the information exchange among the meteorologists, public and media is much easier than before.
First the hurricanes only were given womenīs names but in 1973 also the menīs names were added to the list (for U.S., there are totally 6 lists repeating each 6 years, each hurricane name starts with different letter - in alphabetical order - and menīs names alternate with womenīs honestly).
Retired hurricane names Katrina never more
The hurricane name lists repeat each 6 years but each year there are some names that drop out of the lists. This happens when the hurricane was so deadly, costly or hitting so intensively that using its name in the future could cause dangerous panic.
For example, the
Katrina hurricane (third deadliest tropical cyclone storm in the U.S. history) killed 1500+ people and damaged properties worth almost $85 Millions in 2005 therefore there will be no Katrina (nor Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma) in 2011 when the list from 2005 should be used again.
Katrina will be replaced by Katia, Dennis by Don, Rita by Rina, Stan b Sean and Wilma by Whitney in 2011.
2007 hurricane names
The
World Meteorological Organization, who now maintains the hurricane names list globally, published following names for the
2007 hurricanes that will appear in the Atlantic area:
Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, Wendy.
The other areas have their own lists (couple of lists repeating each couple of years again), e.g.
the eastern north Pacific hurricanes will be named Alvin, Barbara, Cosme, Dalila, Erick, Flossie, Gil, Henriette, Ivo, Juliette, Kiko, Lorena, Manuel, Narda, Octave, Priscilla, Raymond, Sonia, Tico, Velma, Wallis, Xina, York and Zelda this year and
the Phillippino hurricane names will be Amang, Bebeng, Chedeng, Dodong, Egay, Falcon, Goring, Hanna, Ineng, Juaning, Kabayan, Lando, Mina, Nonoy, Onyok, Pedring, Quiel, Ramon, Sendong, Tisoy, Ursula, Viring, Weng, Yoyoy and Zigzag.
Too many hurricanes in one year
Sometimes it happens that there are more than 21 hurricanes in one year. In that case the subsequent storms are named after Greek alphabet - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Ypsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi and Omega.
Hurrican categories
Any tropical cyclone storm with sustaining winds over 73 mph is classified as the hurricane. As the 73 mph is no limit for hurricanes, the meteorologists use also hurricane sub-categories:
- The storms with winds 74 through 95 mph are the category 1 hurricanes;
- The category 2 hurricane starts at 96 miles per hour;
- The category 3 (such as Katrina) at 111 miles per hour;
- The category 4 hurricanes start at 131 mph;
- And the most dangerous are the hurricanes of category No. 5 whos wind blow at least 155 mph.
2007 hurricane season forecast
This year, the official hurricane season will be June November for the Atlantic area and May - November for the Pacific area.
If you live in the hurricane areas, watch your local weather news often in the above specified periods to protect yourself, your families and properties early enough.
