Why do storms have names?

IALA:Why do storms have names?

Today I was reading about Huge storms are often in the news but have you ever wondered why they have names and how they are decided? 

Why do they need names? Tropical storms like hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons are given names so scientists can keep track of them.

 In some places there can be over 100 storms in just 12 months, so names make them much easier for experts to tell them apart. Who makes the name decisions? There are regular meetings of weather scientists around the world to decide on new names for the next year.

 Names of storms which cause a lot of damage are never used again. Storms are named in alphabetical order. The first storm of a year will have an A name, like Hurricane Alice or Typhoon Andrew, the next one gets a B name and so on. There is a name for each letter of the alphabet – but Q, U, X, Y and Z are not included. Who decides if they’re named after girls or boys? Storms take it in turns to have girls’ or boys’ names. Originally storms were only named after girls. In 1979, men’s names were introduced.

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