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This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated two new tropical systems: a tropical storm named Vance in the Pacific and a subtropical storm called Josephine in the Atlantic. These developments come amid an otherwise quiet hurricane season.
Forecasters at NOAA had anticipated a reduced number of storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the broader Atlantic basin this year, largely attributing the subdued activity to the El Niño climate phenomenon. Their prediction has held true, as storm formation remains below average.
Origins and Purpose of Storm Naming
The practice of assigning names to tropical storms and hurricanes dates back to the mid-twentieth century, when the US government introduced it to streamline communication. Prior to this system, NOAA referred to storms by their geographic coordinates—latitude and longitude—which often caused confusion, especially when multiple storms were active simultaneously in the same region.
Storms receive their official names once their sustained winds reach at least 30 miles per hour. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) oversees the selection of these names. When a storm’s winds intensify beyond 119 miles per hour, the system is upgraded to a hurricane or typhoon, depending on its location.
Although NOAA and the WMO formalized the naming process in recent history, the idea itself has deeper roots. Historical records from Puerto Rico as early as 1876, before it became a US territory, show that locals named storms after saints. Additionally, a 19th-century Australian meteorologist helped popularize the practice, which the United States officially adopted in the 1950s.
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