After seeing the devastation caused by Hurricane Charley, then Hurricane Frances and now Hurricane Ivan on the news, can you tell me why hurricanes are given human names? asks Anna Barron, from Bexleyheath.

Simon says ... This is a good question because it is something which has always baffled me too.

I have never understood why weather disasters have been given human names. I have assumed it is an attempt to make hurricanes and other weather conditions seem friendlier in some way.

However, here is the real reason ...

The use of short and distinctive names replaced the previous use of latitude-longitude identification because using human names was deemed to be quicker and less subject to error during the exchange of detailed storm information between hundreds of weather stations, coastal bases and ships at sea.

Atlantic tropical storms have been given names since 1953.

Only women's names were used up to 1979, but now men's and women's names are alternated.

Six lists of names are used in rotation, one list for each year. This means the 2004 names will crop up again in 2010.

The lists were created by the National Hurricane Center in America and are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

Three things struck me when I looked through the lists of names.

Firstly, there will never be a Hurricane Simon. I would never want the great name to be associated with something terrible, but it would be nice if it was famous for something.

The S' names on the lists are Shary, Stan, Sandy, Sebastien, Sally and Sam.

Simon is unlikely to be used because the only time there is a change to the lists is when a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be considered insensitive.

This brings me to the second interesting thing about the lists.

If a name needs to be replaced, the World Meteorological Organization will meet to select another name. I want that job! "What do you do for a living?" "Oh, I'm responsible for naming hurricanes."

The third thing that struck me about the lists is the terrible names which have been chosen. I feel sorry if there are actually any Humbertos or Gastons in the world.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter about Simon not being included ...

  • Florida is known as the Sunshine State but is rapidly becoming better known for being the Hurricane State. It is interesting therefore that some follow-up questions have been sent in by Amy Holden, from Orlando in Florida.

Amy asks: What year did the most named storms occur and what was the name of the last storm that year? What happens if a hurricane season is so busy that more storms occur than names are available? This year, the last name available is Walter. What happens if we have a Walter and then another storm occurs?

Simon says ... As bad as 2004 has been for hurricanes it has a long way to go before becoming the worst year ever.

The worst year for named storms was 1995. This year was the second most active season on record, and the worst for storms in 62 years.

A total of 19 named storms occurred in 1995, second only to the 21 in 1933 before the official naming of storms begun. There were eleven hurricanes in 1995, again the second highest number in one season.

The last named storm of 1995 was Hurricane Tanya.

The answer to the second question is that there will not be more storms than there are names available.

Storm researchers predict there will be 14 Atlantic storms this year.

This means Nicole will probably be the last named storm of 2004.

The researchers would have to be some way off with their forecasts for the list of names to be used up. After Nicole, there are seven more names.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used for naming storms because of the shortage of names beginning with those letters.

The good news for Florida and the rest of the US is there should only be five more storms this year!

  • The following information came in from someone appropriately named Simon regarding the prospect of there ever being a Hurricane Simon:

If you only look at the Atlantic/Gulf Coast side of the US, then there will never be a hurricane/tropical storm Simon. But hop on over to the Pacific and you'll find our name (Simon) on the list. Next rotation appears in 2008! It'd have to make it to 19 tropical storms before that happens, but the way things are looking this year that may not seem so impossible in future.

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