Why do we name hurricanes and name them alphabetically and why did they name them origianlly with female names only?

Gatsby722

Ships generally get female names as well. The general quip is that their called 'hurricanes' and not 'himmicanes'. But that's changed since there are now Male names assigned to hurricanes. I suppose it's alphabetical just for organization. Jun 01 02, 11:34 AM

Brainy Blonde

Reason to name hurricanes Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. History of Hurricane Names Hurricanes used to named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the l9th century. In 1953, the United States weather services began using female names for storms. The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women ended in 1978 when men and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. For a lot more interesting information, see: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/reason.html Jun 01 02, 12:16 PM

elburcher

To add to BB's answer the names are both alpabetical and chronological the first hurricane of the season is A (say Ann) the second B(bonnie)and so on. The lists runs on a 6 year cycle and several names have been retired, such as Andrew and Hugo, at which time new names are added. The first 3 for the 2002 season are Arthur,Bertha and Cristobal Jun 03 02, 4:51 AM