We are out of storm names for 2005 - there's a Tropical Storm Wilma down in the Gulf. Huh. Hurricane season should last another two weeks... what happens if there's another storm?
If there's another storm, they go to the Greek alphabet; the next "named" storm for this year will be Alpha.
I can't seem to disconnect this latest storm from memories of "The Flintstones"... Every time I see the weather report, I hear Fred Flintstone yelling "Wilma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" There's something not right about that.
And the numeric designations were discarded with the naming system. They only will get used, IIRC, if we go past storm Omega, as the greek alphabet is next for the atlantic systems.
(the Northern Eastern Pacific tropical storms use letters A-Z except Q. I don't know what their fallback names are, though. Only the phillipine region storms use the same style of name conventions, and they have an auxillary list for each of their 4 list rotations. The rest of the naming systems are just lists of names, and each storm gets the subsequent name. There is no tying of names to years.)
The more interesting, IMO, question is what if Alpha (or Beta, or whatever) is a storm that causes the significant loss of life or property damage? The normal course is to retire the name and pick a new one for the next time the name rolls around.
Do we get to position replace letters of the greek alphabet in that case?
I kinda think we ought to retire Alpha anyway... next time we get past W the first storm should be Beta. Then use Gamma after that (either in a future year or the same year)... etc. After Omega is "used" in about 1000 years' time, we'll go back to Alpha.
Unless, of course, hurricane seasons stay extra-bad in the near future, as somewhat predicted by long-term trends. In which case it looks like we could easily use them up in a decade by that method. Still might be good enough, though.
Well, it looks like hurricane activity in the North Atlantic goes through roughly a 70-year cycle. The basin is calm for roughly 40 years and active for about 30 years, with almost no transition time between the two phases. This time around, activity jumped dramatically between 1994 and 1995 and has stayed high since then.
Looking back to the last period of high activity, the mid-1930s were the pinnacle... and though storm-tracking technology isn't as good today as it was then (i.e. we may have missed some hurricanes that stayed way out at sea), no season in the 30s would have used "Alpha" under the current system. Indeed in 150 years of hurricane tracking, no season would ever have gotten even to "W".
I was being a bit facetious when I said 1000 years, but I can't see us cycling through my scheme in less than 100 years, frankly...
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eirias
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 04:11 pm (UTC)I can't seem to disconnect this latest storm from memories of "The Flintstones"... Every time I see the weather report, I hear Fred Flintstone yelling "Wilma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" There's something not right about that.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 04:21 pm (UTC)They'll go to numerical designations next. Tropical storm 18.02
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 04:29 pm (UTC)(nor is there a Q or a U).
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml
And the numeric designations were discarded with the naming system. They only will get used, IIRC, if we go past storm Omega, as the greek alphabet is next for the atlantic systems.
(the Northern Eastern Pacific tropical storms use letters A-Z except Q. I don't know what their fallback names are, though. Only the phillipine region storms use the same style of name conventions, and they have an auxillary list for each of their 4 list rotations. The rest of the naming systems are just lists of names, and each storm gets the subsequent name. There is no tying of names to years.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 04:24 pm (UTC)Do we get to position replace letters of the greek alphabet in that case?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 06:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 06:20 pm (UTC)Looking back to the last period of high activity, the mid-1930s were the pinnacle... and though storm-tracking technology isn't as good today as it was then (i.e. we may have missed some hurricanes that stayed way out at sea), no season in the 30s would have used "Alpha" under the current system. Indeed in 150 years of hurricane tracking, no season would ever have gotten even to "W".
I was being a bit facetious when I said 1000 years, but I can't see us cycling through my scheme in less than 100 years, frankly...
unicode!
Date: 2005-10-17 08:29 pm (UTC)