does anyone know how they decide to name a hurricane a boy or a girl? we are trying to figue it out in the office, and we all have different ideas--which direction it moves, tropical storm vs hurricane, pacific or atlantic..???

Nope They all used to be girls, now they are boy - girl - boy - girl

katrina--rita--who's the boy in the middle?

I know that Phillipe was a named storm that never really made landfall.

oh... so ther's no mystery to the names afterall. how borirng

Don't remember L, then Maria, N???, then Ophelia, then Phillip (I remember one of the boys), I think they skip Q, then Rita.

The boys didn't make it to land.

Try this site for the history of names.

Hurricane Names

The Congressional Black Caucus is claiming descrimination because no Africian American Names have been used. (True Story)

...and the Federation is up in arms because no Vulcan names have been used. And in other news...

And the American Psychological Association is up in arms because no mental illnesses have been used...

There are always storms and they are named alphabetically and boy girl boy girl. But some storms never make it to land so we don't really even hear about them or know about them.

Why do they skip "q"? there's Quentin, Quaneesha, - okay maybe those are the only two names that begin with Q.

My niece is going to name her son Quamar!

2010 - Get ready for Hurricane Hermione!!!

"In other news Hurricane RuPaul is making his or her way up the coast...now back to you Diane" - Tom Tucker Family Guy

From the National Hurricane Center:

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center and now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The lists featured only women's names until 1979, when men's and women's names were alternated. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2004 list will be used again in 2010.

The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

Several names have been changed since the lists were last used. Four names from the 1995 list have been retired. On the 2001 list, Lorenzo has replaced Luis, Michelle has replaced Marilyn, Olga has replaced Opal, and Rebekah has replaced Roxanne. Three names from the 1996 list have been retired. On the 2002 list, Cristobal has replaced Cesar, Fay has replaced Fran, and Hanna has replaced Hortense. Two names from the 1998 list have been retired. On the 2004 list, Gaston has replaced Georges and Matthew has replaced Mitch. On the 2006 list, Kirk has replaced Keith.

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.

That was very informative. Thank you for that.