2011 Cyclones retirement

[Florida1118]

Lee caused over $1 Billion in damage, so I think that is a player.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

Irene is the only one I expect to be retired.

I too would vote for Irma as the replacement, though I also think Itzel, Ima, and Izzy would be good.

Ivy is actually the female "I" name I wish I could vote for, but I hesitate because of possible confusion with "Harvey." The whole idea of using names for hurricanes is to give forecasters and the public an easily remembered designation for storms that help to prevent two different storms active in the same year from being confused. Though to most English language speakers Harvey and Ivy might not seem to similar at first glance, when you consider accents there's the possibility of confusion. In an English accent Harvey sounds like "HAH-vee" and in a Texas accent Ivy sounds like "AH-vee". So there's the potential for people listening to others with different accents talking about those two names to get confused.

If Jova is retired, either Juana or Juanita would be obvious replacements. Jennifer would also work -- though not a traditional "Spanish" name, it's now widely used in Mexico and by Hispanics in the USA because of Jennifer Lopez.

I don't expect Lee to be retired, but if it were I think Luke would be a good replacement.

[Hurricane Jed]

Irene is the only one I expect to be retired.

I too would vote for Irma as the replacement, though I also think Itzel, Ima, and Izzy would be good.

Ivy is actually the female "I" name I wish I could vote for, but I hesitate because of possible confusion with "Harvey." The whole idea of using names for hurricanes is to give forecasters and the public an easily remembered designation for storms that help to prevent two different storms active in the same year from being confused. Though to most English language speakers Harvey and Ivy might not seem to similar at first glance, when you consider accents there's the possibility of confusion. In an English accent Harvey sounds like "HAH-vee" and in a Texas accent Ivy sounds like "AH-vee". So there's the potential for people listening to others with different accents talking about those two names to get confused.

If Jova is retired, either Juana or Juanita would be obvious replacements. Jennifer would also work -- though not a traditional "Spanish" name, it's now widely used in Mexico and by Hispanics in the USA because of Jennifer Lopez.

I don't expect Lee to be retired, but if it were I think Luke would be a good replacement.

Where did you hear that? I'm from Texas and we pronounce it eye-vee. Lived here my whole life and been all over Texas. I know Ivy's and my mother and grandmother grow ivy. No one pronounces it Ah-Vee in Texas.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

Irene is the only one I expect to be retired.


Ivy is actually the female "I" name I wish I could vote for, but I hesitate because of possible confusion with "Harvey." The whole idea of using names for hurricanes is to give forecasters and the public an easily remembered designation for storms that help to prevent two different storms active in the same year from being confused. Though to most English language speakers Harvey and Ivy might not seem to similar at first glance, when you consider accents there's the possibility of confusion. In an English accent Harvey sounds like "HAH-vee" and in a Texas accent Ivy sounds like "AH-vee". So there's the potential for people listening to others with different accents talking about those two names to get confused.

Where did you hear that? I'm from Texas and we pronounce it eye-vee. Lived here my whole life and been all over Texas. I know Ivy's and my mother and grandmother grow ivy. No one pronounces it Ah-Vee in Texas.

Oh gee. Texas is a very big state and I am sure not all parts of it have the same accent. But here is what Wikipedia says about the relevant issue:

The diphthong /aɪ/ becomes monophthongized to [aː]: Most speakers exhibit this feature at the ends of words and before voiced consonants but not before voiceless consonants; some in fact exhibit Canadian-style raising before voiceless consonants, so that ride is [raːd] and wide is [waːd], but right is [rəɪt] and white is [ʍəɪt]. Many speakers throughout the South exhibit backing to [ɑːe] in environments where monophthongization does not take place.[9]
Others monophthongize /aɪ/ in all contexts, as in the stereotyped pronunciation "nahs whaht rahs" for nice white rice; these speakers are mostly found in an Appalachian area that includes eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and Northern Alabama (the "Inland South"), as well as in Central Texas.[10] Elsewhere in the South, this pronunciation is stigmatized as a working class feature

This is what I was trying to convey. If "most speakers" exhibit this feature "before voiced consonants" -- well, "V" is a voiced consonant and so most people in East Texas, which is part of the Southern speech area, should exhibit this feature. And the above says that many people in central Texas change the diphthong /aɪ/ to [aː]: in most contexts. This is why people in other parts of the USA hear many Texans saying "The Ahs of Texas" instead of "The Eyes of Texas".

It is really hard to discuss accents purely in writing. It is possible that if you are from Central Texas and everyone around you normally uses the same vowels, you don't realize that people in the rest of the world hear a Texas accent that way.

[somethingfunny]

Ah dun folluh yer postulations thur mr evans

Maybe South Carolina would sound like that? I get what you're saying though, accents are hilarious. You should hear my uncle try to say "oil'. (it's indistinguishable from "all")

[CrazyC83]

Many countries have reports out now for the WMO meeting in April:

http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/tcp/HC-34.html