Michael Petruccelli says: Ever Wonder when the practice of naming hurricanes began, and where the word hurricane comes from?
Native Americans called these storms
Hurakons, after "a great spirit who commanded the east wind." Spanish
explorers adopted the word and then began giving hurricanes the names of patron
saints on whose feast days the storms occurred. Later, hurricanes were
identified by their longitude and latitude.
A weatherman
in Australia is credited with being the first person to name a tropical storm
after a female. By World War II, meteorologists in the U.S. military named
storms after their girlfriends and wives. The first storm in the Atlantic Ocean
named for a man was Hurricane Bob!
Hurricanes names are selected by the World Meteorological
Organization. Every six years, the list of names begins again! However, the
names of especially destructive hurricanes are usually retired.
