Below is the list of names for the 2022 Hurricane Season:
Assigning a name to a hurricane has a reason and a history behind it.
“Looking at 2020 with 170 years of record-keeping, we’ve never had a season with 30 named storms,” said Ken Graham, Director of the National Hurricane Center.
For hundreds of years, hurricanes were first named after particular saint’s days. But that quickly changed before the end of the 19th century, which is when storms only gained the titles of women’s names.
That practice eventually ended in 1978 when men and women’s names were added to the annual storm lists.
Last year was a record season with 30 named storms. It was just the second time the Greek alphabet was ever used and it was also the last time it will be used.
“During the season, there was some confusion, we had Zeta, Eta, Theta, and you had names that sounded and trying to get people to understand these are different storms,” Graham said.
The World Meteorological Organization made the decision in March, and it makes sense. Beta, Eta, Zeta, Theta — all names that sounded similar. Eta and Theta were churning at the same time, adding in confusion.
The confusion gets in the way of the pressing matter — the storms and threats themselves.
Instead of the Greek alphabet, we have a new supplemental list of names starting with Adria and ending with Will. That will only be used if we make it through the first list of 21 names.
Remember, by naming our storms, it allows us to remember major meteorological events, history and how we need to respond to Mother Nature.