

Ask Tom Why

September 07, 2004|By Tom Skilling

Dear Tom,

This season, we have already reached the "I" storm in the Atlantic Basin. Have we ever reached the end of the alphabet?

Bobbi Soltau, Naperville

Dear Bobbi,

The practice of naming tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin began in 1953 with all female names, but since 1979 both male and female names have been alternated. In 1995, a very active hurricane season, there were 19 named storms. The final one, Hurricane Tanya (which meandered through the Atlantic from Oct. 27-Nov. 3), used "T" -- the 20th letter of the alphabet because the naming convention omits use of the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. Prior to the naming of storms, the 1933 hurricane season recorded 21 storms--the most on record--and the last one, a tropical storm which made landfall in Nicaragua on Nov. 17, would have had a name beginning with the letter "W."



