Tropical cyclone naming

Tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones are named by various warning centers to provide ease of communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches, and warnings. The names are intended to reduce confusion in the event of concurrent storms in the same basin. Generally once storms produce sustained wind speeds of more than 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph), names are assigned in order from predetermined lists depending on which basin they originate. However, standards vary from basin to basin: some tropical depressions are named in the Western Pacific, while tropical cyclones must have a significant amount of gale-force winds occurring around the centre before they are named in the Southern Hemisphere. Before the formal start of naming, tropical cyclones were named after places, objects, or saints' feast days on which they occurred. The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named systems between 1887 and 1907. This system of naming weather systems subsequently fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired, until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific. Formal naming schemes and naming lists have subsequently been introduced and developed for the Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Pacific basins, as well as the Australian region, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. Before the formal start of naming, tropical cyclones were often named after places, objects, or saints' feast days on which they occurred. The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named systems between 1887 and 1907. This system of naming weather systems subsequently fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific. Formal naming schemes have subsequently been introduced for the North Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Pacific basins as well as the Australian region and Indian Ocean. At present, tropical cyclones are officially named by one of eleven warning centers and retain their names throughout their lifetimes to facilitate the effective communication of forecasts and storm-related hazards to the general public. This is especially important when multiple storms are occurring simultaneously in the same ocean basin. Names are generally assigned in order from predetermined lists, once they produce one, three, or ten-minute sustained wind speeds of more than 65 km/h (40 mph). However, standards vary from basin to basin, with some systems named in the Western Pacific when they develop into tropical depressions or enter PAGASA's area of responsibility. Within the Southern Hemisphere, systems must be characterized by a significant amount of gale-force winds occurring around the center before they are named. Any member of the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane, typhoon and tropical cyclone committees can request that the name of a tropical cyclone be retired or withdrawn from the various tropical cyclone naming lists. A name is retired or withdrawn if a consensus or majority of members agree that the system has acquired a special notoriety, such as causing a large number of deaths and amounts of damage, impact, or for other special reasons. A replacement name is then submitted to the committee concerned and voted upon, but these names can be rejected and replaced with another name for various reasons: these reasons include the spelling and pronunciation of the name, the similarity to the name of a recent tropical cyclone or on another list of names, and the length of the name for modern communication channels such as social media. PAGASA also retires the names of significant tropical cyclones when they have caused at least ₱1 billion in damage or have caused at least 300 deaths. Within the North Atlantic Ocean, tropical or subtropical cyclones are named by the National Hurricane Center (NHC/RSMC Miami) when they are judged to have intensified into a tropical storm with winds of at least 34 kn (39 mph; 63 km/h). There are six lists of names which rotate every six years and begin with the first letters A—W used, skipping Q and U, and alternating between male and female names. The names of significant tropical cyclones are retired from the lists, with a replacement name selected at the next World Meteorological Organization's Hurricane Committee meeting. If all of the names on a list are used, storms are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet. Within the Eastern Pacific Ocean, there are two warning centers that assign names to tropical cyclones on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization when they are judged to have intensified into a tropical storm with winds of at least 34 kn (39 mph; 63 km/h). Tropical cyclones that intensify into tropical storms between the coast of Americas and 140°W are named by the National Hurricane Center (NHC/RSMC Miami), while tropical cyclones intensifying into tropical storms between 140°W and 180° are named by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC/RSMC Honolulu). Significant tropical cyclones have their names retired from the lists and a replacement name selected at the next World Meteorological Organization Hurricane Committee. The current naming scheme began with the 1978 season, one year before the Atlantic basin (and which anomalously used the list that will be used next in 2018, rather than the one for 2020). As with the Atlantic basin, it uses alternating women's and men's names, and also includes some Spanish and a few French names. Before then, only women's names were used. Because Eastern Pacific hurricanes mainly threaten western Mexico and Central America, the lists contain more Spanish names than the Atlantic lists.