Why are hurricanes named and who decides the names?
They are named in order to distinguish among the many weather systems that develop in any given year. ( http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml ) Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The original name lists featured only women’s names. In 1979, men’s names were introduced and they alternate with the women’s names. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2008 list will be used again in 2014.
