How Do They Name Hurricanes?

(July 23) -- The World Meteorological Organization has prepared six alphabetized lists of names for Atlantic storms (storms in other oceans have separate, rotating lists), and at the end of the six-year cycle, the lists repeat. However, if a given storm produces significant damage or loss of life, its name is retired from the lists, and the World Meteorological Organization adds new names beginning with a corresponding letter.

At an annual meeting, the World Meteorological Organization decides whether to retire a name. In recent years, for example, Ivan, Frances, Katrina, Felix and Gustav have all had their names removed from the pool as a result of their magnitude.

As to the question of how the WMO decides on which specific names to give a tropical cyclone, the organization said it considers names based on three main criteria: names that are easy to remember, are common to the region where the storm is occurring and are easy to understand.

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