If you wondered how we jumped from K(atrina) to O(phelia)

there was a Hurricane Max in between, in the pacific:

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Storm caused a mess of trouble

Lightning, sudden downpours leave residents in the dark and flood streets.

By SARAH TULLY
The Orange County Register

A series of crackling thunderstorms that disrupted electricity to thousands, caved in a roof and brought the first significant rain in months will blow out by early today, the National Weather Service says.

The thunderstorms rumbled into the region Monday night, the result of moist, unstable air that flowed north from Max, a hurricane churning west of Mexico. The storm lasted well into Tuesday, illuminating the skies with bright flashes.

The lightning struck the ground 189 times in Orange County, forecasters said, and generated sometimes heavy showers.

(snip)

Four people aboard a 20-foot sailboat heading from Avalon to Dana Point reported they were abandoning ship after the craft was struck by lightning Monday night. The U.S. Coast Guard was unable to find the boat Tuesday, and officials said the distress call may have been a hoax.

(snip)

In Orange County, about 1,500 Southern California Edison customers remained without power as of 9 p.m. Tuesday in Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Cypress, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Westminster, Newport Beach, Brea, La Habraand Garden Grove. Earlier in the day, customers were without power in Lake Forest,Irvineand Laguna Beach.

(snip)

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_683852.php

Each ocean has their own set of named storms. In the Atlantic this year between Nate and Ophelia were Lee and Maria.

Here's the link for this year's named storms in each ocean. Once we get to the end of the list, we switch to Greek letters. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

some were tropical storms that fizzled:

2005
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Dennis
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katrina
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma

No U either. What do you do after Ursula?

There are only 21 'named' storms each season. Once they run through 21 names, they go to the Greek alphabet.

Other piece of hurricane trivia, the names are recycled every so often except if a storm causes massive death and destruction. Then the name is 'retired'.

I even looked up the names for Atlantic hurricanes
They are:

Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Dennis
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katrina
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the term for a hurricane in the Pacific was "typhoon".

:crazy:

If it develops in the eastern basin of the Pacific, i.e. near North America (including Mexico, which is geographically part of North America), it's still called a hurricane. It's called a typhoon in the western Pacific. I don't know where the official dividing line is.

We had Lenny, Maria and Nate in the Atlantic, none of which threatened the US and so of course weren't widely reported on.

even earlier..

I know that names get "retired" if they're major storms and would presume that both Katrina and Rita will probably be retired after this year.

However... if (!) we make it into greek alphas and we get a major storm ("Cat 5 Hurricane Gamma about to make landfall at..."), what happens then? Do they retire individual greek letters or do they do a rename on it or does the "name" not get retired?

This one's been puzzling me for a while...