Weatherman Humor

[Jonesee]

Anybody else wonder if the guys at NOAA sit in a room and laugh their collective butts off while making the list of names for tropical storms. Let's look at the recent names:
Dennis, became Dennis the Menace
Ivan, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible
Now there is Bertha, Big Bertha come to anyone's mind??
They have to anticipate some of these nicknames while creating the list.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Jonesee

Anybody else wonder if the guys at NOAA sit in a room and laugh their collective butts off while making the list of names for tropical storms...

No, I don't.

A Tropical Cyclone ( including hurricanes & typhoons) is not given a name*[1] until the sustained maximum wind speed reaches a threshold of 34 Knots (39 mph, 63 Km/H).

Tropical Cyclone (TC) names are obtained from pre-designated lists, either by committees of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), or by the various regional organizations & National weather offices.

The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee selects the names for Atlantic Basin and central and eastern Pacific storms.
Hawaiian names are used for central Pacific storms.
Similar WMO regional committees are involved in selecting names for other parts of the world, but not all nations involved adopt these names *[2].

Hurricanes are tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) and in the Pacific east of the International Date Line. Typhoons are tropical cyclones over the northern Pacific west of the date line. Tropical cyclones in the South Pacific and over the Indian Ocean are just called cyclones.

*1. Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names:
Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names

*2. While most naming systems use common first names, in various languages, nations around the western Pacific began using an entirely new system for naming typhoons in 2000. The names include animals, flowers, astrological signs and a few personal names.

When a storm is extremely destructive or causes extensive lose of life, the name of the hurricane will be retired*[3].

*3. This page lists all of the "retired" names of tropical cyclones worldwide:
Retired Tropical Cyclone Names

[GordMay]

Although he was a qualified meteorologist, Hopkins ran up a terrible record of forecasting for the TV news program. He became something of a local joke when a newspaper began keeping a record of his predictions and showed that he'd been wrong almost three hundred times in a single year. That kind of notoriety was enough to get him fired. He moved to another part of the country and applied for a similar job. One blank on the job application called for the reason for leaving his previous position. Hopkins wrote, "The climate didn't agree with me."

George Carlin, as Al Sleet, the “hippie-dippie weatherman”:
"Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning."
Goto:

YouTube - George Carlin 'The Hippy Dippy Weatherman'

And:

YouTube - George Carlin at the Tonight Show (1966)

[exfishnz]

Originally Posted by Jonesee

Let's look at the recent names:

In the case of the perfect storm (of which the movie was based), it is my understanding that it's called "the storm with no name". It developed unexpectedly & quickly that no time was ever given to name it - hence "no name".

[Chief Engineer]

It is much more entertaining to think of a bunch of nerds with taped glasses, pocket protectors, taped glasses and blackberries in a holster,
sitting around drinking Redbull or a double redeye, latte, raw sugar, cinamon, hazelnut Starbucks....pulling names out of the....air and making a list

Originally Posted by GordMay

No, I don't.

A Tropical Cyclone ( including hurricanes & typhoons) is not given a name*[1] until the sustained maximum wind speed reaches a threshold of 34 Knots (39 mph, 63 Km/H).

Tropical Cyclone (TC) names are obtained from pre-designated lists, either by committees of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), or by the various regional organizations & National weather offices.

The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee selects the names for Atlantic Basin and central and eastern Pacific storms.
Hawaiian names are used for central Pacific storms.
Similar WMO regional committees are involved in selecting names for other parts of the world, but not all nations involved adopt these names *[2].

Hurricanes are tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) and in the Pacific east of the International Date Line. Typhoons are tropical cyclones over the northern Pacific west of the date line. Tropical cyclones in the South Pacific and over the Indian Ocean are just called cyclones.

*1. Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names:
Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names

*2. While most naming systems use common first names, in various languages, nations around the western Pacific began using an entirely new system for naming typhoons in 2000. The names include animals, flowers, astrological signs and a few personal names.

When a storm is extremely destructive or causes extensive lose of life, the name of the hurricane will be retired*[3].

*3. This page lists all of the "retired" names of tropical cyclones worldwide:
Retired Tropical Cyclone Names

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by exfishnz

In the case of the perfect storm (of which the movie was based), it is my understanding that it's called "the storm with no name". It developed unexpectedly & quickly that no time was ever given to name it - hence "no name".

The “real” Storm of the Century, also known as the ’93 Superstorm, No-Name Hurricane, the White Hurricane, or the (Great) Blizzard of 1993, was a large cyclonic storm that occurred in March of 1993.
(This was not the October 1991 "Perfect Storm" of book & movie fame, that sank the Andrea Gail.)

From March 12 through March 15 1993, a massive storm stretched from Eastern Canada, down through the eastern United States to Cuba and Central America. It was unique because of both its intensity, as well as its massive size and wide reaching effects.

As a result of this enormous and unprecedented storm, significant loss of life and property damage occurred from the Caribbean all the way to Nova Scotia.

In the end, the Superstorm of 1993 caused over 300 deaths (270 in USA, & 48 lost at sea) and approximately $6 to $10 billion damage*.

At the time, the storm was the fourth costliest* disaster in United States history, behind Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo, and the Oakland Hills Fire in California (March 31, 1993).

Straight-line winds gusted above 115 kts at many locations in The Bahamas and Florida, as the squall lines moved through.
We experienced at least 70 - 80 knot winds, and massive seas & breakers within Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthra (Bahamas).

* Natural Disaster Survey Report (NDSR) 1994:1-1)

[cooper]

Our senior ( and they would be not pleased if that referred to them as old) forecasters here in Melbourne , Australia ( a particularly difficult place to give an accurate forecast), often do a radio cross, themselves....I can attest that the burden of the nerdy type , pencil in top pocket image has given them the most wonderful sense of humor and a wit that is as changeable and powerful as a low coming off the southern ocean.....