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For
several hundred years, hurricanes in the West Indies were often named after
the particular saints day on which the hurricane occurred. For example
"Hurricane San Felipe" struck Puerto Rico on 13 September 1876. Another
storm struck Puerto Rico on the same day in 1928, and this storm was named "Hurricane
San Felipe the second." Later, latitude-longitude positions were used.
However, experience has shown that using distinctive names in communications
is quicker and less subject to error than the cumbersome latitude longitude
identification methods.
Using
womens names became the practice during World War II, following the use
of a womans name for a storm in the 1941 novel "Storm" by George
R. Stewart. In 1951 the United States adopted a confusing plan to name storms
by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie), and in 1953 the nations
weather services returned to using female names. The practice of using female
names exclusively ended in 1978 when names from both genders were used to designate
storms in the eastern Pacific. A year later, male and female names were included
in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The name lists, which have been
agreed upon at international meetings of the World Meteorological Organization,
have a French, Spanish, Dutch, and English flavor because hurricanes affect
other nations and are tracked by the public and weather services of many countries.
The
Tropical Prediction Center in Miami, FL keeps a constant watch on oceanic storm-breeding
grounds. Once a system with counterclockwise circulation and wind speeds of
39 mph or greater is identified, the Center gives the storm a name from the
list for the current year. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included because
of the scarcity of names beginning with those letters. Names associated with
storms that have caused significant death and/or damage are usually retired
from the list.
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