Hurricane Names

Did you know that they pre-name all hurricane names?

I didn't until I read about it in a magazine. Can you imagine if your job was to come up with a list of names for hurricanes? That's a pretty fun job. There are so many obscure jobs I have never even imagined. This is one of them.

Check this out from the magazine:

Because hurricanes often occur at the same time, officials assign short, distinctive names to the storms to avoid confusion among weather stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea. Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists created by the National Hurricane Center and now maintained and updated by the World Meteorological Organization. The lists featured only women's names until 1979, when men's and women's names were alternated. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2008 list will be used again in 2014. If all the names in a season's list have been used, later storms are named for Greek letters, in alphabetical order. (This has only happened once, in 2005). A storm is given a name once its winds reach a speed of 40 MPH. In addition to the Atlantic list of names, there are ten other lists corresponding to other storm-prone regions of the world.

2008

Arthur
Bertha
Christobal
Dolly
Eduard
Fay
Gustav
Hanna
Ike
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paloma
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred

2009

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henry
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda



2010

Alex
Bonnie
Coon
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Thomas
Virgine
Walter

2011

Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Phillipe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney

2012

Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debbie
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Raphael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William

What do you think of these hurricane names?