What's In A Name.... For A Hurricane?

Tropical storms have been named for 2017, so here is the list of hurricane names for the Atlantic Basin (Miami hurricanes) and Eastern North-Pacific (California hurricanes). Is your name listed?

HOW ARE HURRICANES NAMED?

• Native Americans called these storms Hurakons, after “a great spirit who commanded the east wind.” Spanish explorers adopted the word and then began giving hurricanes the names of patron saints on whose feast days the storms occurred. Later, hurricanes were identified by their longitude and latitude.
• A weatherman in Australia is credited with being the first person to name a tropical storm after a female. By World War II, meteorologists in the U.S. military named storms after their girlfriends and wives. The first storm in the Atlantic Ocean named for a man was Hurricane Bob!
• Hurricanes’ names are selected by the World Meteorological Organization. Every six years, the list of names begins again! However, the names of especially destructive hurricanes are usually retired. See the “retired” tropical storm and hurricane names.

For more fun information on hurricanes, find out how to figure out a hurricane’s strength and how to predict a hurricane!