Why are hurricanes named?
Tropical cyclones – the proper name for hurricanes – are named to provide ease of communication between forecasters and the public. The storms often last a week or longer, and more than one can occur at the same time in the same area. The first use of a proper name for a tropical cyclone was by an Australian forecaster, who named tropical cyclones after politicians he didn’t like. The weatherman could publicly describe a politician as “causing great distress” or “wandering aimlessly about the Pacific.” During World War II, tropical cyclones were given women’s names by U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy meteorologists, and were named after meteorologists’ girlfriends or wives. From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet, such as Able, Baker or Charlie, but in 1953 the U.S. Weather Bureau switched to women’s names. Gender parity didn’t come until 1979, when the World Meteorological Organization and the U.S. National Weather Service
