Chances are, there are too few hurricane names available this year: Tropical Storm Sally is the 18th storm to be named this year, leaving only three names left: Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred. The season in the Atlantic will run until November 30.
Sally is about to become a category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The front is heading for the US Gulf Coast, less than a month after Hurricane Laura caused damage there. A state of emergency has been declared in the area.
Near Bermuda, Tropical Storm Paulette can also develop into a hurricane. Another tropical storm, Rene, has just weakened into a depression.
Greek letters
The US weather agency NOAA already predicted that it would be a turbulent season, with expected between 19 and 25 storms and between 7 and 11 hurricanes. That’s close to 2005, when there were 27 storms and 14 hurricanes, both a record.
If names are still needed after Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred, meteorologists will switch to letters of the Greek alphabet, just like in 2005, starting with Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
Basically storm names are given every six years reused for new storms, unless the impact of a hurricane is particularly great. In that case the name will be replaced. This happened, for example, in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans badly; that name was exchanged for Katia.
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