Hurricane Safety Zone - Hurricane Wilma

Hurricane Wilma

For as long as many of us can remember, there have been storms that the National Hurricane Center has considered interesting enough to name. There have been all kinds of names given, the latest being Hurricane Wilma, but at some point - don't you ever wonder where in the world they get these names and just whose ideas are they?

The mystery behind the naming of Hurricane Wilma

It really is no mystery, what happened was just this... Back in the olden days, hurricanes did not have the distinction of a proper name, they could only be identified by their coordinates, and that gets a bit confusing for both the laymen and the expert alike. So, in 1953 the National Hurricane Center started to name all the hurricanes that crosses over their radar. This made things a lot easier, but now there was the question of what names to give them and who would do the deciding! After all, who wouldn't want a hurricane named after them? In order to be fair, the policy of naming hurricanes got rather boring. In order to come up with names like Katrina, Rita, or Wilma, there is a list that gets rotated every six years. They will literally go through their list of names and give out the names over and over again, every six years that is. So, I am sorry to say that this is probably not the first Hurricane Wilma, but it will most likely be the most famous Hurricane Wilma!

From 1953 through 1979, only women's names were given to hurricanes and then in 1979 they started to alternate men's and women's names, but they still follow the six year rotation. It is the World Meteorological Organization that now creates now maintains the lists of hurricane names for each year. The only time that they will no re-use a name is if the hurricane was particularly damaging, in that case the name is retired. Hurricane Wilma is the 21st storm of the 2005 hurricanes season, which ties this season as one of the most active in history. And experts do not expect this kind of activity to slow any time soon. Many project that we will see very active hurricane seasons for the next few decades - which should be enough to make hurricane safety a top priority in our home. Don't let Hurricane Wilma catch you and your family unawares.