Will Hurricane Beta be known as Hurricane Beta 2005?

[Saul Trabal]

This appears to be the most active hurricane season in recorded history. Of course, history can repeat itself.

Suppose, just a few years down the line, we have a season as active or more active than this one, and we hit the name "Beta" again. Will this hurricane be designated as "Beta 2005"?

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

If I remember right we covered this topic with Alpha and someone mentioned that when using the greek alphabet the storms are already designated by year. Hurricane's Alpha and Beta will already go down in the record books as Alpha '05 and Beta '05 regardless of their strength. Should this happen next year, they would be known as Alpha '06... etc. Am I correct?

 

[Scott Olson]

If I remember right we covered this topic with Alpha and someone mentioned that when using the greek alphabet the storms are already designated by year. Hurricane's Alpha and Beta will already go down in the record books as Alpha '05 and Beta '05 regardless of their strength. Should this happen next year, they would be known as Alpha '06... etc. Am I correct?

I noticed Rob mentioned this but from what i've read there is no documentation from the WMO that specifies that a year is supposed to be added. They could just keep using the Greek Alphabet and when it seems like there is a remote possibility of running out of names, the WMO can add more.

EDIT: FROM THE RA IV COMMITTEE/WMO:

The Greek Alphabet (Alpha,Beta) will be used to name additional tropical cyclones.

It's just a backup list of names to be used for overflow years. There is no year at the end of it according to this document.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Not sure about the year designations, but even the regular named storms are subject to rotation of names every several years, so you could potentially have 2 storms of the same name. Now, I understand that a storm of uncommonly outstanding characteristics - strength, expense, loss of life, etc., - would have it's name retired forever. Even so, this leaves open the possibility of two different storms of the same name, even in the "normal" list of names. Not sure why the Greeks would be any different.

 

[Chuck Vlcek]

Well, it has been over 70 years since we had enough storms to use up the regular list of names. If one were to assume that this is roughly the average interval of reoccurence of this many storms (and global warming is not a significant factor here), then it could well be 250 to 300 years before we had another Wilma, if that name is not retired. That is because "Wilma" would come up in the rotation once every four (or more?) years, but most of the time the season would end without reaching "W". Thus there might not be any reason to retire "Wilma".

Now, the names Alpha and Beta (and beyond) do not rotate, so a reoccurence is more likely in the coming century. Retiring such names is not a simple option. Affixing the year after the name seems to be a better option, but only when it becomes necessary. Names on the regular list do get used again (anybody remember Dennis in 1999?), but as far as I know the year is not used as part of the name, although it might be mentioned in the same sentence as the name if that seems necessary. So I would guess that Greek alphabet names would be treated the same way.

What if Nicaragua and Honduras drown in Beta juice and another Beta comes up in just a few years? I'd say we cross that bridge when we get to it.

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Now, the names Alpha and Beta (and beyond) do not rotate, so a reoccurence is more likely in the coming century. Retiring such names is not a simple option. Affixing the year after the name seems to be a better option, but only when it becomes necessary.

One idea I had was that, since as you said the Greek names probably wouldn't be used all that often, would be to stop the Greek list at the end of the year, then resume it at that point the next time it is needed. For example, if Beta is the last storm this year, the next time we are in this situation we would start with Gamma instead of Alpha, to avoid skipping a potentially retired Beta. Or, come up with a separate "normal" list of names to be used in this situation, so they could be retired if necessary.

One thing to also consider is that the Greek alphabet is also used in the East Pacific as necessary (although I don't think it's happened yet). Although probably not likely, it's feasible there could be Alpha storms in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins in the same year.

Chris G.