Should the term "hurricane" be extended?

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Hello.

If I did something wrong by posting this or/and I shouldn't post this, then I apologize. Well, in the light of recent weather events in Europe, I have started to think about term hurricane. In English, it means a tropical cyclone. In German, it can mean a hurricane force wind if to use word Orkan instead of Hurrikan. Now here's an idea - maybe the term "hurricane" should be extended so it would include also middle latitude cyclones? Another, and maybe a better way would be adding an extra word at the beginning what would tell its type. So if we would be talking about middle latitude hurricane force system then we would say "middle latitude hurricane" or "extratropical hurricane" and if we would be talking about tropical cyclone then we would say "tropical hurricane". The third idea would be that tropical hurricane would be status quo, just a hurricane, but middle latitude hurricane-force systems would be called middle latitude hurricane etc. Since there are people already confusing them(and likely there are also a language differences), then maybe something like this should be worked out?

For example, if you would be threatened by 100 mph middle latitude cyclone, then what would give you a better idea about the gravity of the weather situation? Warning about "severe storm" or about "hurricane"?

 

[B Ozanne]

From everything I have heard the word hurricane is American Indian in origin and was used to describe, well, hurricanes that hit the Florida area.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

I have heard that the word hurricane has many sources, including Native American taino's "Wind's evil spirit". If you know a better word what is synonymous to hurricane and refers to middle latitude cyclone, then let me know. For me, calling 120 mph system a storm is pretty much like calling tornado a mini-tornado in UK or using tromb instead of tornaado in Estonia.

 

[Ed Schoenborn]

Could one call a mid latitude hurricane a nor'easter? About 10 years ago I experienced a cat 4 polar hurricane near Qanaac, Thule, Greenland that formed in the Arctic Ocean and came south. Ed

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Could one call a mid latitude hurricane a nor'easter? About 10 years ago I experienced a cat 4 polar hurricane near Qanaac, Thule, Greenland that formed in the Arctic Ocean and came south. Ed

Might be fine for USA, but there could be a language problem for rest of countries. For example, I doubt that we have nor'easter in Estonian language. The other thing is that our storms come from west and affect western Europe first.

 

[B Ozanne]

A nor'easter is really a slang term used to describe a certain type of storm that forms off the east coast of the United States. Besides, one person's nor'easter is another person's sou'wester. It just depends where the storm tracks.

The best word might just be "cyclone." In meteorology classes all you really talk about is cyclones and anti-cyclones. They can be tropical or extra-tropical. It's just bad luck that the rest of the world only thinks of a cyclone as something tropical in nature.

 

[Ed Schoenborn]

If one adopted the term mid latitude hurricane should a mid latitude system with the structure and force of a tropical storm be called a mid latitude tropical storm? Ed

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Cyclone could be a possible. They use it on tropical cyclones in Indian Ocean or something... but Europe is at the coast of Atlantic Ocean, so people might recognize it as just some clouds, rain and slightly windier weather. But maybe, how about deriving "hurricane cyclone" from German Orkantief(Hurricane low)?

Ed, no. Would be mid latitude storm or extratropical storm. Idea is extending the word hurricane out from tropics. The problem is that "hurricane" could be interpreted differently. For example, if I open any Estonian encyclopedia or dictionary at "hurricane" then it says: Wind over 32,7 m/s. Also tropical cyclones at Atlantic Ocean and East Pacific. And this is already happening. For example, our media here called recent Central-European hurricane-force storm a hurricane. How are you going to tell Estonians(for example) that "No, you have only storms. Even if they have 100 mph winds, they are still storms." if dictionaries tell the different language. Beaufort force 12 is also called hurricane.

 

[Robert Dewey]

What about "extratropical hurricane"? It sounds kind of funny since hurricanes are usually tropical, but it sounds better than the other names proposed.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

What about "extratropical hurricane"? It sounds kind of funny since hurricanes are usually tropical, but it sounds better than the other names proposed.

Would be fine for Estonia, Germany etc. I'm OK with it... And it wouldn't sound funny for me... and probably for some other European countries as well.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Would be fine for Estonia, Germany etc. I'm OK with it...

Agreed, I too think this would be a good idea.

 

[Karen Politte]

I don't see what's wrong with Option 3.......but then I've never really seen why geographical differences influence what we call something.

KL

 

[Paul Knightley]

I don't think the term "hurricane" per se should include mid-lat storms...in the UK, as forecasters we warn people of such storms using enhanced wording in forecasts. A lot of the media called the massive storm in October 1987 a hurricane, but of course it wasn't.
I think as long as the forecasts include expected wind speeds, a different term is not required. We get major storms each winter, and to be honest, across Scotland and Ireland, winds like this occur each winter.
Even across lowland England, winds like this will occur about once in 5 years.

 

[Peter Kirk]

Only takes gusts to 32.7m/s here for the media to report hurricane force winds despite the Beaufort scale being a ten minute average as opposed to a three second gust. I've voted no in this case.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Might work for English, but once again, languages like Estonian have it with two meanings. Sadly it seems that language is too small for several meanings so I fear that the other meaning could be weeded out because vast majority of the world thinks about hurricane as tropical cyclone. And guess what could happen if one just hears a news headline what says tempest is coming, but misses the wind speed? I still think that word hurricane is much better than enhanced wording like heavy storm or severe storm. Calling 120 mph a storm is very pitifully funny and strange for me whether tropical or not.

Another idea: Maybe just extend it only in Europe?