These were actually announced at the (Florida) Governor's Hurricane Conference, and had been in the works for a while. Max Mayfield announced at that time that they would just name S/T storms, rather than use the alpha/bravo system or numeric designators.

Also, Max indicated that if a system was a threat near the coast they would overlook nuances, ie, same way they did with Edouard off the Fl east coast. "No unnamed storm will strike the US" was the exact quote, I believe.

He also implied (as I understood it) that even if a system transitioned from t/st to extrtatropical, that if it was near the coast, they would maintain name/warnings to insure continuity/understanding by the public that regardless of what type of storm it was, the treat was still there.

Hope this sheds light on the discussions that have been on-going here about this.

IHS,

Bill