Tropical Cyclone Names

For several hundred years, many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint’s day on which the hurricane occurred. Ivan R. Tannehill describes in his book “Hurricanes” the major tropical storms of recorded history and mentions many hurricanes named after saints. For example, there was “Hurricane Santa Ana” which struck Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825, and “San Felipe” (the first) and “San Felipe” (the second) which hit Puerto Rico on September 13 in both 1876 and 1928.

The first known meteorologist to assign names to tropical cyclones was Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist. Before the end of the l9th century, he began by using letters of the Greek alphabet, then from Greek and Roman mythology and progressed to the use of feminine names. In the United states, an early example of the use of a woman’s name for a storm was in the novel “Storm” by George R. Stewart, published by Random House in 1941. During World War II, this practice became widespread in weather map discussions among forecasters, especially Air Force and Navy meteorologists who plotted the movements of storms over the wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1953, the United States abandoned a confusing a two-year old plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.). That year, this Nation’s weather services began using female names for storms. The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men’s and women’s names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Why Tropical Cyclones Are Named

Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, airports, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. For example, one hurricane can be moving slowly westward in the Gulf of Mexico, while at exactly the same time another hurricane can be moving rapidly northward along the Atlantic coast. In the past, confusion and false rumors have arisen when storm advisories broadcast from one radio station were mistaken for warnings concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.

The name lists have an international flavor because hurricanes affect other nations and are tracked by the public and weather services of countries other than the United States. Names for these lists agreed upon by the nations involved during international meetings of the World Meteorological Organization.

The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. Some notable tropical cyclones.

Atlantic Names

The National Hurricane Center (RSMC Miami, FL), is responsible for the Atlantic basin west of 30°W. If a disturbance intensifies into a tropical storm the Center will give the storm a name from one of the six lists below.

A separate set is used each year beginning with the first name in the set. After the sets have all been used, they will be used again. The 2015 set, for example, will be used again to name storms in the year 2021.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because of the scarcity of names beginning with those letters. If over 21 named tropical cyclones occur in a year, the Greek alphabet will be used following the “W” name.

In addition, after major land-falling storms having major economic impact, the names are retired.

Tracking charts (pdf)

Atlantic Basin

Gulf of Mexico

Eastern North Pacific Names

The National Hurricane Center (RSMC Miami, FL), is also responsible for the North East Pacific basin east of 140°W.

If a disturbance intensifies into a tropical storm the Center will give the storm a name from one of the six lists below. A separate set is used each year beginning with the first name in the set.

After the sets have all been used, they will be used again. The 2015 set, for example, will be used again to name storms in the year 2021.

Tracking charts (pdf)

Eastern Pacific

Central North Pacific Names

Central Pacific Hurricane Center (RSMC Honolulu) area of responsibility is from 140°W longitude to 180° longitude. The names below are used one after the other. When the bottom of one list is reached, the next name is the top of the next list.

Western North Pacific Ocean/South China Sea

RSMC Tokyo – Typhoon Center is responsible for the western North Pacific (west of 180°) and the South China Sea.

The practice of naming storms, which usually brings destruction, after persons appears to run counter to Oriental sensibilities.

Thus, Asians like the Japanese and Chinese prefer to name their storms after other living things and also after inanimate objects like flowers, rivers etc.

These names are used sequentially. If the last storm of the year is Cimaron, the first storm of the next year is Jebi.

Australian Region Names

There is a single list of names that are used by all of theBureau of Meteorology Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWC). This single list was introduced for the start of the 2008/09 season, replacing the three lists that existed previously.

The name of a new tropical cyclone is usually selected from this list of names. If a named cyclone moves into the Australian region from another country’s zone of responsibility, the name assigned by that other country will be retained. The names are normally chosen in sequence, when the list is exhausted, we return to the start of the list.

The Perth TCWC area of responsibility is the Southeast Indian Ocean. TheDarwin TCWC area of responsibility is Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpenteria of north Australia. The Brisbane TCWC is responsible for the Coral Sea off northeast Australia.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Names

The Port Moresby TCWC is responsible for the Solomon Sea and Gulf of Papua. The name of a new cyclone is determined by sequentially cycling through list A. Standby list B is used to replace retired names in List A and any replacement name will be added to the bottom of list A to maintain the alphabetical order.

Fiji Region Names

The RSMC Nadi, in Fiji, are of responsibility is Southwest Pacific Ocean extending from 120° to 160°E and from the equator to 25°S.

Lists A, B, C, and D are used sequentially one after the other.

The first name in any given year is the one immediately following the last name from the previous year.

‘Standby’ is a list of replacement names if they become necessary.

Southwest Indian Ocean Names

The RSMC La Réunion area of responsibility is Southwest Indian Ocean. Madagascar, Reunion, Seychelles, Comores, and Mauritius use a common list of names for identifying tropical depressions.

Mauritius is responsible for naming depressions forming in the region lying between longitude 55°E and 90°E. Madagascar is responsible for the region west of longitude 55°E.

Whenever a cyclone moves from the Australian region of responsibility to that of Mauritius, it is given a hyphenated name comprising the names from both regions for a period of about 24 hours. Thereafter it is known by the South West Indian Ocean name.

North Indian Ocean

RSMC New Delhi, India is responsible for the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

These lists will be used sequentially. The first name in any given year is the one immediately following the last name from the previous year.

Next: Tropical Cyclone Hazards