How are Atlantic Hurricanes Named & Classified?

Mr. Weather’s World is a weekly video series bringing you interesting and reliable information about the Earth Sciences, Space Weather, and Climate Change. Tune in each week for exciting new content with host and meteorologist Curt Silverwood (Millersville University Alum).

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Katrina, Sandy, Andrew, Rita, and Florence. All names of deadly or costly hurricanes that have since been retired for use for future tropical cyclones, but why are hurricanes named and how are they classified?

Tropical cyclones are named to prevent confusion and streamline communication when distributing information on the storm.

In 1953, the United States ditched a confusing phonetic alphabet naming system and began using female names for storms. By the end of 1978 to 1979, men’s and women’s names were included in the East Northern Pacific and Atlantic Basin storms lists.

The World Meteorological Organization has a strict procedure established for naming storms. For Atlantic hurricanes, a list of male and female names are used on a 6 year rotation. The names are only changed if a storm is deadly or costly and it wouldn’t be appropriate to use again. Each list contains 21 names excluding names starting with Q, U, X, Y, & Z. If there are ever more than 21 storms in a hurricane season, additional storms would be named from the Greek Alphabet.

Typically, there are around 15 named storms a season, with 8 becoming a hurricane. Normally three of the eight hurricanes are classified as a Category 3 storm or greater.

If a tropical cyclone has maximum sustained winds over 74 MPH the cyclone is called many different things around the world. Hurricanes are classified as Category 1 through Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The scale only considers intensity of wind speed and doesn’t address storm surge, flooding, and tornadoes related to the cyclone.

Next time, we’ll take a look at storm surges, and how they contribute to the devastation associated with a tropical cyclone. Subscribe on YouTube to watch a new video every #WeatherWednesday!
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