How do hurricanes get their name?
A master list of storm names is put together years in advance. The list can be seen on the National Hurricane Center website. The list used to contain only womens names but mens names were added in 1979. Now the names alternate - one female, one male, one female, one male and so on. A list of names is recycled and reused after six years. The only time names are removed from the lists is if the names were associated with extremely deadly, costly or damaging storms. If a name is retired another name replaces it after being chosen by the World Meteorological Organization. Different areas of the world have different lists, so a name can be on several different lists and could have storms with their name in different years. For example the Atlantic list includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. My name (Valerie) is on the list for the year 2012. The Northern Australia list constantly recycles itself so my name could theoretically be the name of a storm more than once. Is your name on any of the lists?
