| dave foster |
| (Weather Hobbyist) |
| Tue Oct 11 2005 01:27 AM |
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The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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I've heard a lot of people discussing the fact that we are running out of names for this season. When I discovered the naming plan subsequent to Wilma I was surprised by the notion of carrying on with letters from the Greek alphabet. I think the whole point of using common christian names is to make the storms memorable and, posssibly, to add some colour or character to them. The problem with using unique names such as 'alpha' will make it difficult when it comes to archiving, as some people have already mentioned. The fact that this season is turning out to be long on names is a concern since, if we are to believe all the stories of global warming, we may be in for many more of them, hence putting further pressure on the current naming convention.
So, I decided to think of what might be a better alternative.
I thought of the following:
1. Run through the season's names again appending the value 2 e.g. Katrina2
Obviously, this sounds a bit like movie re-hashing as in Jason37, but it would still lend character without confusing the issue regarding the storm it was referring to, for example, anyone that's seen Aliens knows perfecly well that Aliens2 is a different movie.
If anyone has any good ideas on the matter please feel free to comment and add to the list.
| Multi-Decadal Signal |
| (Weather Guru) |
| Tue Oct 11 2005 09:46 PM |
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Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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Here are 2 ideas.
1. Add the year to the Greek letter. i.e. Alpha 05
2. Substitute the Hebrew letter for a deadly Greek named storm. i.e.
if Alpha is a bad storm worthy of retirement, then put Aleph in the lineup. Aleph, Beta, Gamma...
G. Cantor gave Hebrew names to the 3 classes of infinity so the use of that alphabet is not unknown to science.
| HanKFranK |
| (User) |
| Wed Oct 12 2005 04:54 PM |
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Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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the way this talk is going we could start substituting celtic runes or egyptian hieroglyphs into hurricane names. it goes against the normal conventions. i think they ought to just have an auxillary list of normal names that they only go to in case of emergency (like more than 21 storms in a year). or just add an xyz like in the eastpac to go the extra mile.
HF 1654z12october
| NewWatcher |
| (Storm Tracker) |
| Thu Oct 13 2005 02:44 PM |
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Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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I really dont understand the big deal here. Why do the names have to be]
predetermined... the NHC seems to be the ones in charge, just make up a name when there arent anymore or make an alt list or use alpha i mean who really cares about the name anyhow??????
| Big Kahuna |
| (Weather Hobbyist) |
| Fri Oct 14 2005 05:53 PM |
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Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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Why doesnt the World Meteorological Organization just use all the letters in the alphabet? If we run out then,
1. switch to the Greek Alphabet
2. You know we had a really big season.
| Margie |
| (Senior Storm Chaser) |
| Sat Oct 15 2005 05:13 PM |
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Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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Well it is a moot point in a sense because NHC has already decided. However I think they just picked something, thinking it would never come into play so it wasn't anything critical.
Now that they might have to actually name a storm Alpha, with future seasons looming where that occurance might have to be repeated, I think they'll reconsider. I like names; hurricanes all have unique characteristics that we morph into personalities, and so there is something clinically unappealing about calling a storm Alpha.
I agree with HF, just create a 7th list of names that has the same conventions as the first six, but only gets used it you run out in a season. It doesn't even have to be more than 10 names (couldn't imagine a season of more than 31 named storms anyway, much less more than 42). And is easier than extending all six of the existing sets of names.
| shannon |
| (Registered User) |
| Thu Oct 20 2005 05:06 PM |
Re: The Big Storm Naming Dilemma
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They can't just go back to A and run through the alphabet again?