With the tropical season now officially underway, I thought I'd share the list of names that the meteorological community has decided to give to Tropical Storms & Hurricanes this year.
In case you need a refresher course, here is how things typically progress in the tropics, as far as the formation/classification of a system are concerned:
(1). Tropical Wave - developing area of low pressure where thunderstorms are still relatively disorganized. No real center or sustained wind field. A name or number is not formally assigned to this type of system, however it may eventually be given an "Invest" (or area of investigation) number as it develops further.
(2). Tropical Depression - developing area of low pressure with more organized thunderstorm activity. Develops an area with sustained winds of 38 mph or less. A number is assigned to the system once it reaches this stage (i.e., Tropical Depression One, Two, Three, etc.)
(3). Tropical Storm - organized area of low pressure & thunderstorm activity with sustained winds of 39-73 mph. A formal name is given to the system at this stage.
(4). Hurricane - organized area of low pressure & thunderstorm activity with sustained winds greater than 73 mph. Continues with the same name assigned once it reached Tropical Storm strength.
Once a storm reaches Hurricane strength, it is also assigned an intensity on the "Saffir-Simpson Scale" (similar to the EF-scale used for tornadoes). For more on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, see this post.
Tracking charts are also available below each list of names, click on the image to go to the NHC website for downloadable and/or printable versions...
Below is the list of official names that will be given to Tropical Storms and/or Hurricanes that form in the Atlantic this season:
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily*
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney
Below is the list of official names that will be given to Tropical Storms and/or Hurricanes that form in the Eastern North Pacific this season:
Adrian
Beatriz
Calvin
Dora
Eugene
Fernanda
Greg
Hilary
Irwin
Jova
Kenneth
Lidia
Max
Norma
Otis
Pilar
Ramon
Selma
Todd
Veronica
Wiley
Xina
York
Zelda
*We're particularly anxious for the formation of Hurricane Emily around our house this year, as we feel that her destructive power is likely to closely resemble that of our 4 year old daughter of the same name. For the sake of all those involved, we hope that particular storm remains out to sea....
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1 comment:
I just wanted to alert everyone that our (Barbados) new Doppler Radar has not been working for the last 3 months or so, last image data posted was on March 1st., and we only managed to get the local met. authorities to get it online very late last year - after Tomas went through us and it wasn't working properly then either.
http://www.barbadosweather.org/radarImagery.php
The system has been producing imagery since late 2008 and its 3 year warranty runs out later this year and we still have not seen 'return on the EU loan' that funded the project. Our Met. Office's attitude as quoted in one local paper on the subject was like we did without for all this time, we can continue to make do (with the radar out of Martinique nearly 150 miles away). So much for serious consideration and disaster preparedness.
Furthermore the Rawinsonde/Radiosonde ground equipment at our local Met. Office, located at the Grantley Adams Int'l. Airport (GAIA), has not been working either for about 6 weeks, so no sonde data had been posted by TBPB/78954 station since the later half of April. Its awaiting some part. This missing data has the NHC/NWS obviously concerned because of the strategic position of Barbados being the most easterly of the Caribbean islands.
http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol_web/adp_plots/ raobs/raobs_world.html
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol_web/adp_plots/ raobs/78954/latest.html
I have written letters to the locals newspapers with some success in getting it published, tried various avenues, some could be promising but bureaucratic inertia could be an issue, so I decided to go full open on this and warn all concerned.
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