First land falling Greek storm.

[OuterBanker]

Not sure if this is worthy of a separate thread but I'm wondering if we will have the first Greek named storm make land falll. I know 2005 reached the Greek alphabet, I don't think any made land fall. Since we will probably reach S and maybe T (that naked swirl near Bermuda) I think that Alpha will be a lock. And soon enough to be a threat.

[weeniepatrol]

Not sure if this is worthy of a separate thread but I'm wondering if we will have the first Greek named storm make land falll. I know 2005 reached the Greek alphabet, I don't think any made land fall. Since we will probably reach S and maybe T (that naked swirl near Bermuda) I think that Alpha will be a lock. And soon enough to be a threat.

Beta 2005.

[ClarCari]

Alpha in 2005 also made landfall in Hispaniola.

[zhukm29]

After the 2005 season, the WMO decided that Greek letters cannot be officially retired, and will only be remembered as "Alpha 2020", "Beta 2020", etc. if a Greek storm ended up notable enough to be retired had it been given a normal name (and all the letters can be reused again the next time they are needed). Honestly, they seemed to have punted the issue off for later, assuming that something like this wouldn't happen again. Well, 15 years later, here we are again...

Here's a nice quote from October 2005. I'm pretty sure no one expected this so soon!

We all have to remember that it took 72 years to even have this issue come up! It really isn't much worth arguing. The rarity of a year with an excess of 21 storms is enough of a reason not to worry about the naming of additional storms. People... this is the first time this has ever happened and the liklihood it will ever happen again in your lifetime is slim. So what if you have to debate which storm... Alpha 2005 or Alpha 2065??? -It isn't likely anyway.

So unless the NHC/WMO pull an 1985 and add some X/Y/Z names to the Atlantic list, there's a good chance our October monster could be a Greek letter. So not only will the 2021 WMO meeting have to discuss 2019 and 2020 name retirements, they also will have to revisit the Greeks again. What an absolutely crazy turn of events!

I think it's highly likely for us to have a Greek landfall this season. In 2005, Alpha formed very late in October (also, Beta and Gamma made landfall in Central America, so there were Greek landfalls in 2005). This year, we could be looking at the Greeks in late September, and honestly it would be quite tough to go through all of October and November without a single landfall.

[ClarCari]

I had an idea that the Atlantic could alternate the X Y Z names with EPAC since the basins alternate gendered letters. For ex, in 2021 Atlantic could use Xavier, Yolanda, and Zeke, while EPAC uses Xina, York, and Zelda. And them switch every year. Since it’s rare for both basins to reach that far, it may not cause that much confusion to do this. IDK if it would work or not but it could be considered.

[zhukm29]

I had an idea that the Atlantic could alternate the X Y Z names with EPAC since the basins alternate gendered letters. For ex, in 2021 Atlantic could use Xavier, Yolanda, and Zeke, while EPAC uses Xina, York, and Zelda. And them switch every year. Since it’s rare for both basins to reach that far, it may not cause that much confusion to do this. IDK if it would work or not but it could be considered.

That's actually a nice idea! Although I think EquusStorm would want a separate 2-year rotation for the Atlantic just because he/she wants their Z name to finally get a chance on a naming list (and we can all agree that Zeke/Zelda are not getting retired any time soon). There are definitely enough XYZ names if we only need to choose 2 additional names per letter, one per gender.

Also unrelated, but Josh Morgerman (iCyclone) would also approve of that

 https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/889054733251485696

[Steve]

When I was in college, we called ‘em rent-a-friends

[Ryxn]

Maybe the title should be "First CONUS Landfall from a Greek Storm" because that has yet to happen. The first would have been Category 5 Alpha in 2005 if the unnamed Azores storm was named, making Wilma, Alpha and Alpha, Beta.

There is even a chance of a major hurricane CONUS landfall of a Greek Storm sometime in early October.

[OuterBanker]

Maybe the title should be "First CONUS Landfall from a Greek Storm" because that has yet to happen. The first would have been Category 5 Alpha in 2005 if the unnamed Azores storm was named, making Wilma, Alpha and Alpha, Beta.

There is even a chance of a major hurricane CONUS landfall of a Greek Storm sometime in early October.

Actually, that's what I meant. First land falling US hurricane.

[tomatkins]

I had an idea that the Atlantic could alternate the X Y Z names with EPAC since the basins alternate gendered letters. For ex, in 2021 Atlantic could use Xavier, Yolanda, and Zeke, while EPAC uses Xina, York, and Zelda. And them switch every year. Since it’s rare for both basins to reach that far, it may not cause that much confusion to do this. IDK if it would work or not but it could be considered.

That's actually a nice idea! Although I think EquusStorm would want a separate 2-year rotation for the Atlantic just because he/she wants their Z name to finally get a chance on a naming list (and we can all agree that Zeke/Zelda are not getting retired any time soon). There are definitely enough XYZ names if we only need to choose 2 additional names per letter, one per gender.

Also unrelated, but Josh Morgerman (iCyclone) would also approve of that

https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/889054733251485696

Really, I think its time to give up the rotating lists and just go West Pac style with a long list that doesn't rotate. I know the NHC thinks its helps people figure out what part of the season they are in - but a) who cares, look at a calendar, and b) I dont think it does - its September and we are at R with S and maybe T by the weekend - in some other years we might still be at C or D.

[BadLarry95]

I had an idea that the Atlantic could alternate the X Y Z names with EPAC since the basins alternate gendered letters. For ex, in 2021 Atlantic could use Xavier, Yolanda, and Zeke, while EPAC uses Xina, York, and Zelda. And them switch every year. Since it’s rare for both basins to reach that far, it may not cause that much confusion to do this. IDK if it would work or not but it could be considered.

That's actually a nice idea! Although I think EquusStorm would want a separate 2-year rotation for the Atlantic just because he/she wants their Z name to finally get a chance on a naming list (and we can all agree that Zeke/Zelda are not getting retired any time soon). There are definitely enough XYZ names if we only need to choose 2 additional names per letter, one per gender.

Also unrelated, but Josh Morgerman (iCyclone) would also approve of that

https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/889054733251485696

Really, I think its time to give up the rotating lists and just go West Pac style with a long list that doesn't rotate. I know the NHC thinks its helps people figure out what part of the season they are in - but a) who cares, look at a calendar, and b) I dont think it does - its September and we are at R with S and maybe T by the weekend - in some other years we might still be at C or D.

I think we should just have 2 aux lists that have normal names on them. That way they’re easy to retire and I doubt we’d ever exhaust a 42 name list unless there’s like a meteor impact

[ClarCari]

I had an idea that the Atlantic could alternate the X Y Z names with EPAC since the basins alternate gendered letters. For ex, in 2021 Atlantic could use Xavier, Yolanda, and Zeke, while EPAC uses Xina, York, and Zelda. And them switch every year. Since it’s rare for both basins to reach that far, it may not cause that much confusion to do this. IDK if it would work or not but it could be considered.

That's actually a nice idea! Although I think EquusStorm would want a separate 2-year rotation for the Atlantic just because he/she wants their Z name to finally get a chance on a naming list (and we can all agree that Zeke/Zelda are not getting retired any time soon). There are definitely enough XYZ names if we only need to choose 2 additional names per letter, one per gender.

Also unrelated, but Josh Morgerman (iCyclone) would also approve of that

https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/889054733251485696

Really, I think its time to give up the rotating lists and just go West Pac style with a long list that doesn't rotate. I know the NHC thinks its helps people figure out what part of the season they are in - but a) who cares, look at a calendar, and b) I dont think it does - its September and we are at R with S and maybe T by the weekend - in some other years we might still be at C or D.

A long non-rotating list doesn’t work the same here because the Atlantic doesn’t have nearly the amount of year-round activity the WPAC does. Going Alphabetical makes less sense for them bc they experience at least some tropical activity every month of the year, which everyone in the West Pacific countries would be aware of.

In the Atlantic, the general population can easily understand hurricane season to be from June to November.
Alphabetical isn’t to help know what part of the season they’re in (that’s what months of the year are for ), but to demonstrate how active a season has been. People DO IN FACT understand hurricane names are in alphabetical order, so hearing a “S” name in September means something completely different than A “D” name at the same time.

The only thing IMO that should be looked at for some revision is auxiliary names.

[Hurricanehink]

I still think the auxiliary list should be names that can work for either gender, names like Jordan or Kelly. That way they can be retired and they’re still human names.