Matthew . . The Hurricane
By Inlemay
@Inlemay (17712)
South Africa
October 7, 2016 3:20am CST
Babysitting has its perks because as soon as the toddlers are napping, Nana can play.
However I decided to put The television on and catch up with some news and CNN is showing all the tragic devastation Hurricane Matthew is causing along is whildwind path.
What I would like to know is why the name Matthew? How are these names decided?
Any smart people out there to enlighten me?
I do send prayers for those that are suffering during this terrible storm.
12 people like this
8 responses
@LadyDuck (502194)
• Italy
7 Oct 16
The reply is easy. Hurricanes names are chosen from a list selected by the World Meteorological Organization. There are six lists of names for Atlantic Ocean storms. Each year it is used one list. For Atlantic hurricanes, there is a list of male and female names which are used on a six-year rotation.
8 people like this
@topffer (42155)
• France
7 Oct 16
For Atlantic, the names are English, Spanish or French, depending of the area where is the storm. The first letter gives the number of the storm for the year, so Matthew is the 13th storm of the year in the North-East of the Atlantic. When a storm makes a lot of victims, the name cannot be used anymore. It is removed from the list and replaced by another one : Matthew has replaced Mitch in the English names list, like Katia has replaced Katrina.
4 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
7 Oct 16
They get a list of names prepared ahead of the season and just keep going down the list. They don't get a name until they are a tropical depression or tropical storm, I think. When I was young, they were always female names, but there came a time when feminists insisted that it was misogynistic to only use female names. Personally, I think the storms named after women sound much more frightening than the ones named for men. I never once thought that it was chauvinist or anything. Lots of languages use feminine and masculine nouns, and no one is insisting they change the language to make them all neuter. People just find crazy things to get upset about.
3 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
8 Oct 16
Did you evacuate at all, Dianne, just in case it did wreck the havoc that was anticipated? I'm glad you were spared. I'm thinking lots of folks have been praying for everyone on that side of the ocean.
1 person likes this
@Macarrosel (7498)
• Philippines
7 Oct 16
In our country we have our version of names of typhoons. Just like typhoon Haiyan before, we named it as Yolanda. It is alphabetical list of names of male and female.
3 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
17 Oct 16
there is quite a process to it, very regulated. they do need to update their name list I think though
Storms are given short, distinctive names to avoid confusion and streamline communications
1 person likes this
