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Why We Need To Stop Gendering Hurricanes
Hurricane Ian just did a nasty hit on Florida. It will make a second landfall somewhere near Savannah, and may regain hurricane status, or it might stay a tropical storm.
Tropical weather is a familiar problem for people in certain parts of the world. We in the U.S. are most familiar with the hurricanes that hit the south eastern U.S. as well as the Caribbean and Mexico every year in late summer through fall.
These storms also hit Japan, China, India, Australia…Pacific islands. Pretty much anywhere in the tropics can generate a tropical cyclone.
These storms are big and slow moving. They do at least give you plenty of warning…
When a tropical depression becomes a tropical storm, it gets a name. And herein lies the issue.
“Female” Storms Kill More People
Hurricanes are given human-sounding, English language names in the U.S. These names are chosen by the National Hurricane Center from a list. When a storm becomes particularly dangerous, the name is retired and not used again. So, there will never be another hurricane Katrina or Ian. The names are used in alphabetical order, which means that low alphabet names (this year’s first was Alex) are seldom associated with major storms, and neither are high ones…the peak hurricane…