The United States is in the middle of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and parts of the country are preparing for the arrival of potential Hurricane Helene. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and FEMA are advising those likely to be affected to be vigilant and prepared in case a powerful storm hits your community. The weather agency predicts an 85% chance that activity will be above normal this year.

NOAA meteorologists predict up to 25 named storms in 2024 four and seven could be classified as major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5). As with any season, these weather systems will have a name waiting for them when they form.

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When did NOAA start naming storms?

In the Mid-twentieth centuryThe U.S. government began naming storms to simplify communication and inform the public about them. In the past, NOAA was often used Positions or latitude and longitude to communicate about storms, but that becomes very confusing when there are more than one at a time who stays in a specific area.

A storm is given a name when its wind speeds reach more than 39 miles per hour. The World Meteorological Organizationthat selects the names upgrades the storm to a hurricane or typhoon if sustainable Winds reach more than 74 miles per hour.

Neither the World Meteorological Organization nor NOAA invented this naming practice. In Puerto Rico Records show this as early as 1876Before the island became a colony of the United States, some on the island baptized each storm with the name of a saint. A meteorologist in Australia also popularized this practice in the 19th century. which was taken over by the USA in the 1950s.

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In the first decades of using this method, NOAA had only selected Female names for storms. However, in the 1970s this practice was discontinued and traditionally male names were used. This led to a phenomenon observed by social scientists in which storms with female names were viewed as weaker and less threatening; Highlighting the ways in which gender bias influences a society’s perception of threat. It is important to remember that the strength of a storm does not affect the choice of name. Quite the opposite.

21 storm names have already been selected for each of the next six years, The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used. As the storms appear, they are given names in alphabetical order. and if there are more than twenty-one, Names are taken from an alternative list approved by the WMO. The lists are recycled every six years.

Which names have been withdrawn?

NOAA has reported that “when a storm occurs fatal or costly that future use of its name on another storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity,” it may be withdrawn. Since 2000, 44 names have been removed from circulation. This compares to 22 names that retired between 1980 and 1999. This means that more than twice as many names have been retired since the beginning of this century than in the previous two decades – an indicator of the impact of climate change on storm severity.