|
Hurricane* Development Stages |
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|
Stage |
Sustained Wind Speed |
Comments |
| Tropical Disturbance or Wave |
£ 20 knots (23 mph) |
Thunderstorms with barely organized general circulation |
| Tropical Depression |
20 - 34 knots (23 - 39 mph) |
Several closed isobars on surface map |
| Tropical Storm |
35 - 64 knots (40 - 74 mph) |
Closely spaced isobars |
| Hurricane* |
> 64 knots (74 mph) |
See Saffir-Simpson Scale for strength classification |
*"Hurricane" (North Atlantic
and East Pacific) = "Typhoon" (Western North Pacific) = "Cyclone" (Indian Ocean)
= "Willy Willy" (Australian term)
= "Tropical Cyclone" (general international term)
|
Hurricane/Tropical
Storm Names |
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|
Scheme |
Period |
Comments/Examples |
| By Saint, on or near Whose Day Storm Occurred |
Early |
Hurricane Santa Ana struck Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825 |
| By Latitude, Longitude and Date |
Early, Pre-World War II |
Cumbersome, ambiguous, designation changed as storm moved |
| Alphabetical, Using Radio Code Words for Letters |
WW II through 1952 |
Able, Baker, Charlie, . . . . |
| *Alphabetical, Using Female Names |
1953-1977 |
Hurricane Camille, 3rd Atlantic Tropical Cyclone (TC) of 1969 |
| *Alphabetical, Using names of Alternating Gender |
1978 - present in East Pacific |
Hurricane Douglas, 4th Eastern Pacific TC of 2002 |
|
1979 - present in North Atlantic |
Hurricane Andrew, 1st Atlantic TC of 1992 | |
*Atlantic and Pacific name lists are independent.
With the current alternating gender scheme, the first name for the year
alternates between
male and female each year, with opposite genders starting the
Atlantic and Pacific lists, e.g., in 2011 the first Atlantic storm was
Arlene and
the first Eastern Pacific storm was Adrian. In 2012 the first named Atlantic tropical
cyclone will be male (Alberto) and the first Pacific storm,
female (Aletta).
Name lists are
recycled every six years except that the names of major (Category 3 or
higher) hurricanes, causing great damage, are retired
for at least ten years, to
prevent confusion of identity. The names of truly "great" storms,
e.g., Katrina, Andrew, Hugo, Camille, etc., may
remain permanently retired.