From
Auburn University's Ask Aubie page.
Helping Aubie this week is:
Dr. Philip Chaney, Assistant Professor of Geography in AU’s College of Sciences and Mathematics
Dear Marlee,
In the early days of hurricane tracking in the North Atlantic Basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, memorable storms were often named after the places where they made landfall (for example, Florida Keys Storm of 1935). Weather observers later used latitude and longitude positions to identify the storms, but this system was confusing and difficult to use in radio broadcasts. The National Weather Service began assigning names to the storms in 1950 based on a phonetic alphabet system (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.). In 1953, the National Weather Service replaced the old system with a new, international phonetic alphabet, and then developed an official list of hurricane names that included only female names. This practice continued until 1979 when male and female names were alternated on the list.
Today, an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization manages the naming system, which includes making lists of storm names for the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. For Atlantic hurricanes, six different lists are used in rotation. Each list starts with a name that begins with the letter “A” and ends with a name that begins with the letter “W”. Also, each list alternates between starting with a male or female name. A new list is used at the beginning of each hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) so that the name of the first storm of the year always begins with “A”. At the end of six years, the first list is recycled and the process starts all over again. In many regions of the world, however, the lists are not rotated until all the names are used. Rotating these lists means that many names are used again and again, but famous names like Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Camille (1969) are retired forever.
The Atlantic Hurricane season extends from June 1 to November 30, with September being the peak month for hurricane activity. Hurricanes begin to form when the sea surface temperature reaches approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, most hurricanes in the early part of the season (before Labor Day) form in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico because these water bodies are relatively shallow compared to the Atlantic Ocean, and thus, warm up more rapidly. This pattern leads to more hurricane landfalls in the U.S. along the Gulf of Mexico coast during the early part of the season. After Labor Day, hurricane formation shifts eastward as the Atlantic Ocean begins to warm up, which leads to an increase in hurricane landfalls along the U.S. Atlantic Coast in September and October. Late in the season, the Atlantic begins to cool so hurricane formation shifts back to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico region.
The word hurricane comes to us from the Caribbean region, where the Carib Indians used the term “huaracan” meaning “big wind.” In the Pacific Ocean region hurricanes are called Typhoons, which appears to come from the term “Tai-phung” that also means big wind. In the Indian Ocean region, hurricanes are simply referred to as “Cyclones,” which refers to their meteorological definition as a low-pressure weather system with a cyclonic rotation. Interestingly, the earth’s rotation around its axis causes wind flow patterns in the northern and southern hemisphere to be reversed. So hurricanes that hit the U.S. rotate in a counter-clockwise direction while Cyclones that hit places like Australia in the southern hemisphere rotate in a clockwise direction.
Thanks for your question,
Aubie and Dr. Chaney
) during the Blake-Nadal game... I was thinking the whole while "this is how GoldenD must look while playing tennis".
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