As the Category 5 storm barrels through the Caribbean, Hurricane Irma is quickly becoming a household name. Whether you look at the news or social media, Irma is one of the most talked-about topics of the moment.
After seeing it come up quite a few times on your feed, you may be questioning the storm’s name. Why is it named Irma? How does that work?
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There’s actually a very good reason that storms get names like Irma, Jose, Katrina and Harvey.
On their website, the National Hurricane Center says that short and memorable names actually work better for storms than complicated latitude-longitude naming systems. Calling a hurricane “Irma” is a great way to keep anything from being confusing or lost in communication.
In the case of Irma, things get a little creepy. The hurricane is proving to be incredibly destructive, and its name aligns well with that trait. In German, “Irma” refers to the Goddess of War. While that’s a little scary, the name was picked long before the storm actually came into existence.
When it comes to picking the specific names, there’s an entire process already in place. The World Meteorological Organization says that there is a rotating list of names to choose from.
“For Atlantic hurricanes, there is a list of names for each of six years,” the NHC reports. “In other words, one list is repeated every seventh year. The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace.”
Names like Katrina, Harvey or Irma probably won’t be used again in the future.
The lists are arranged alphabetically each year, so every hurricane will get the next name in line. This is why Irma was next up after Harvey.
