I'm beginning to think that I shouldn't have asked the question since it was more from a curiosity point of view, i.e., not something that required an immediate solution. If it ever should happen (and it might), NHC will solve the dilemma when the time comes. I agree with Clark that a rotating list would solve the problem - not sure that the countries in the Atlantic basin are ready to move toward that type of a solution though. Hank, it would be Golf, not Gamma. When a name is retired from the regular list for any given year, it is replaced with another - but the phonetic alphabet is a fixed list that really has nothing to do with weather (unless you are on air-to-ground radio with a pilot). The phonetic alphabet is used throughout the world by english speaking countries for air to ground communications - normally when radio reception is poor and clarity is needed. With the improved communications of the satellite age, the phonetic alphabet could eventually become a relic of the past, but at the moment it is a fixed list. The list was modernized quite a few years ago. In 1950 when the Weather Bureau (anybody else remember the Weather Bureau besides Old Sailor?) started to name tropical storms they started with the old phonetic alphabet. In 1953 they dropped the phonetic alphabet and started to use the names of women. In 1954 they started to retire the names of significant hurricanes, but they were thinking about the retirement of names a few years earlier. In 1950, the names Easy and King probably would have been retired if the standards of 1954 were applied...but they were names in the phonetic alphabet at that time, so the retirement of names didn't start until after the naming convention had changed.

Okay, thats the history lesson - which brings us back to my original question. This year has a chance (probably a good chance) of breaking the record of 21 storms set in 1933. If we get a 22nd storm, its name would be Alpha. Odds are that the storm would not amount to much and the issue would never arise - but what if it was a significant storm? For Phil: Yes, the odds are slim, however, I'll give you a different scenario: Its February 2005 and I've just forecasted a record breaking season - would you have believed it at that time? Well, I wouldn't have either. How about 7 named storms in July? Naw, you'd have thought that someone had slipped me a funny cig on my last cruise

. In meteorology, never say never.
Cheers,
ED