A little history first….
Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center since about 1953. The list of storm names are maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.
Back in the day, the original name lists (six of them) featured only women’s names, however in 1979, men’s names were then introduced to the list, alternating with the women’s names. The six lists are rotated - for example the list for 2008 will be used again in 2014, with only one exception. If a storm is so costly, or deadly, that using the name again would be inappropriate (take Andrew or Katrina for examples), then the name would be removed and replaced with another. The World Meteorological Organization would be in charge of such changes.
If there are more than 21 named storms in one season, the additional storms would be named from the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.) - this last happened in 2005, when the names Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta were used during the most active Atlantic hurricane in history.
So, here are the names for the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season (let’s hope the list of used names stays small)….
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gustav
Hanna
Ike
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paloma
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
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