how are hurricanes named?

In the North Atlantic and Northeastern Pacific regions, feminine and masculine names are alternated in alphabetic order during a given season. The gender of the season's first storm also alternates year to year. Six lists of names are prepared in advance, and each list is used once every six years. Five letters — "Q," "U," "X," "Y" and "Z" — are omitted in the North Atlantic; only "Q" and "U" are omitted in the Northeastern Pacific. This allows for 21 names in the North Atlantic and 24 names in Northeastern Pacific. Names of storms may be retired by request of affected countries if they have caused extensive damage. The affected countries then decide on a replacement name of the same gender, and if possible, the same language as the name being retired. If there are more than 21 named storms in an Atlantic season or 24 named storms in an Eastern Pacific season, the rest are named as letters from the Greek alphabet. This was first necessary during the 2005 Atlantic season when the list was exhausted. There is no precedent for a storm named with a Greek letter causing enough damage to justify retirement; how this situation would be handled is unknown.

In the Central North Pacific region, the name lists are maintained by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Four lists of Hawaiian names are selected and used in sequential order without regard to year.

In the Northwestern Pacific, name lists are maintained by the WMO Typhoon Committee. Five lists of names are used, with each of the 14 nations on the Typhoon Committee submitting two names to each list. Names are used in the order of the countries' English names, sequentially without regard to year. Since 1981, the numbering system had been the primary system to identify tropical cyclone among Typhoon Committee members and it is still in use. International numbers are assigned by Japan Meteorological Agency on the order that a tropical storm forms while different internal numbers may be assigned by different NMCs. The Typhoon "Songda" in September 2004 was internally called the typhoon number 18 in Japan but typhoon number 19 in China. Internationally, it is recorded as the TY Sonda (0418) with "04" taken from the year. Names are retired from the lists upon request. The most common reason is to memorize the extensive damage caused by the storm. When names are retired, the contributing member should propose new names. A possible way to do so is through local name nomination contest, which was done in Hong Kong[56] and China[57].

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology maintains three lists of names, one for each of the Western, Northern and Eastern Australian regions. These lists are in alphabetical order and alternate gender, but are used sequentially rather than switched each year. There are also Fiji region and Papua New Guinea region names agreed upon WMO RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee members.

The Seychelles Meteorological Service maintains a list for the Southwestern Indian Ocean. There, a new list is created each year, so names are not retired.

Hurricane Names

hurricanes are given names. Why is that? To help us identify storms and track them as they move across the ocean. Remember, there can be more than one hurricane at a time and without naming them, we could get confused and which storm we're talking about.

For hundreds of years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. An Australian meteorologist began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century. In 1953, the U.S. National Weather Service, which is the federal agency that tracks hurricanes and issues warnings and watches, began using female names for storms.

In 1979, both women and men's names were used. One name for each letter of the alphabet is selected, except for Q, U and Z. For Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, the names may be French, Spanish or English, since these are the major languages bordering the Atlantic Ocean where the storm occur.

So who decides what names are used each year? The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. The same lists are reused every six years. The only time a new name is added is if a hurricane is very deadly or costly. Then the name is retired and a new name is chosen.

The practice of naming our storms has a long history. Back in the 1800s, hurricanes in the West Indies were named according to the saint's day on which the storm occurred. Later, forecasters and weather experts started using latitude-longitude positions to describe hurricanes, but soon realized it was quicker and easier to use distinctive names.

Using only women's names for hurricanes became the fashion after a 1941 novel by George R. Stewart called Storm. In 1979, names of both genders were used for Atlantic hurricanes after eastern Pacific storms began to use male and female names. An international committee at a meeting of the World Meteorological Organization came up with six separate name lists for hurricanes. Each list is reused every six years, with the exception of the names of storms that have resulted in major damage or death. Those names are "retired," just like the number of a hockey or basketball player whose accomplishments are so far above the rest

The pattern of naming of hurricanees is not set. The Govt of the country is there to name them. The future hurrican in USA may be termed as Osama, Saddam etc. there is not such a defined criteria for naming a hurricanes.

Due to their long-term persistence, and the need for a unique identifier in issuing forecasts and warnings, tropical cyclones are given names. The following are lists from which these tropical cyclone names are derived.

1 North Atlantic

2 South Atlantic

3 North Pacific east of 140W

4 Central North Pacific (Date line to 140W)

5 Western North Pacific

5.1 Philippines

6 North Indian Ocean

7 Australia

7.1 Western Australia (90E to 125 E)

7.2 Northern Australia (125E to 137E)

7.3 Eastern Australia (137E to 160E, south of ~10S)

8 South-west Indian Ocean

9 Fiji

10 Papua New Guinea

its usually alphabetical and is a very vast list from the regions above

General public propse the names for typhoons or hurricanes to World Meteorological Organization. WMO officially retire a name after a significant damage to the affected area. It will invite general public in the affected countries to propse names to replace the old one.

The naming schemes for hurricanes in the Atlantic and other areas are different. For more information, please see my source.

they r named in alphabetical order and in seperate genders.... but if they seam to skip letters thats becuz all hurricanes...even tiny ones that dont make the news are named and every hurricane in approx. the last 100 years has been recorded

The US Government finds the worst names (like Velma, and Katrina) and names the hurricanes after them!

The geologists and meteorologists decide how destructive and violent and awful the hurricane will be and then pick a relevant husband or wifes name

all huricanes are named alphabetically and each hurricane is alternately named male and female. i.e a= amy b=brian c=cassie d= dave