After a 2005 hurricane season that ravaged cities across the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, five storm names were retired Thursday — but don’t expect to see their jerseys in the rafters they left strewn across Cuba, Mexico, Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.
“Unfortunately, you need a storm to hit and cause a considerable amount of destruction for it to be retired,” said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The names Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma will never grace a hurricane again, according to a committee of the World Meteorological Organization, which retires storm names out of sensitivity for the victims, and for historical, scientific and legal purposes as well.
The names, which are recycled every six years, will now be Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney.
The retirement of five storm names speaks to the severity of the 2005 hurricane season, which saw an unprecedented 27 named storms and 15 hurricanes. Never have five storm names been retired in one season, Vaccaro said.
Since 1953, when tropical cyclones were first assigned monikers, 67 storm names have been retired. Thirteen percent of those have come in the last two seasons.
Reflect upon what your nation assigns as priorities.
This is news? It is common practice. After Andrew hit Miami in 1992, they retired that name. They have been doing this for decades.
Uh, Alex — yeah, the article says they’ve been doing this since 1953. And…?
EIdeard, my point is, why is this remarkable? What is the point of posting it? Are you going to be making blog entries for plainly obvious facts now?
Alex — I’ll try not to let my sense of humor get the better of me. You know this isn’t remarkable. I know it isn’t remarkable. However, even “plainly obvious facts” sometimes surprise folks, sometimes provoke response and comment.
We’re less than 60 days from the next complete set of names kicking in. Nudging folks to think about that may seem too subtle. Sorry.
Some of us who sit in the path of Hurricanes every year, don’t need reminding. It’s always in the back of my mind. During hurricane season, I monitor the weather in the tropics regularly. Having gone through several hurricanes, including Andrew, I find little humor on the subject. Hurricane season is a time of anxiety. Worring if the next storm is going to hit and wondering if you should put your shutters up. Believe me, I don’t need reminders about hurricane season.
You have my sympathy. Having been through several, I don’t miss hurricanes at all. Not the prime reason I “escaped” from the East Coast; but, given my druthers — which I did — I choose to live without hurricanes along with air pollution, traffic congestion, high crime rate.
Of course, I still get illegal immigrant labor, crooked politicians, whining NIMBY’s [a Santa Fe specialty] and hayfever.
So Alex, if you dread hurricane season so much and take it all so seriously, why stay there?
Around here, we constantly worry about tornadoes that seldom give more then a few minutes warning. Yet, we all can joke about them. In California, I read jokes all the time about earthquakes. And I’m sure Eideard is wary about the 120 F in the New Mexico summer.
I was unaware that the names were retired, but it sounds like a good idea. Maybe its a good thing they don’t name tornadoes.