Who Will Be Next? Discover How Hurricanes And Tropical Storms Earn Their Notorious Names!

But in the 1950's, most hurricanes were named by the latitude-longitude numbers to their location. A process that was useful to meteorologists that were actively tracking these storms.

However, this process was mostly confusing for the public and made it difficult to find out further information about each storm.

It became formal practice to name a storm through the phonetic alphabet (e.g., Able, Baker, Charlie).

Additionally, each name was reused in the same order for every season. For example, the first hurricane of a season was always named “Able,” the second “Baker,” and so on.

To avoid repetitiveness and confusion, the National Weather Service began following the practices of Naval meteorologists and named each storm after female names. Much like the way ships at sea were traditionally named after women.

In 1979, that list grew to include male and female names.

Typically, tropical storms are given names when they display a rotating circulation pattern and wind speeds of 39 miles per hour.

A tropical storm develops into a hurricane when wind speeds reach 74 miles per hour.

What does that mean?

That means the list of this year’s hurricane names won't come up again until six years from now.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. If a hurricane demonstrates to be particularly damaging, the name is retired for legal and historical reasons.

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