Ruby Lee Coleman, age 13, of Union Springs, for her question:
On what basis are hurricanes named?
Every year we go to war with a brood of hit and run guerillas. These wild bandits are stormy hurricanes that hatch over the sultry seas around the West Indies and move forth in paths of destruction on land and sea, We are ready to study and track them with a wide spread alert system and this year we have satellites to spy on them, plus a new weapon which may tame their fury or force them to change course.
An approaching hurricane is tracked by radar, radio, planes and now by orbiting satellites. All communications are alerted to give warning and a general alarm of this kind is identified with a code word. The code word, used by thousands, must be clear and simple, easy to pronounce and recognize. Since the seasons hurricanes strike in a series, the code words also should be in a related series.
They could, for example, be a series of boy's names and many indignant young ladies wonder why they are not. The weathermen, they think, are just trying to suggest that females are more given to hurricane type tantrums than boys which is why they choose girls' names for these raging storms. Well, there are two good reasons why this is not so. First, hurricanes and other disasters are not supposed to resemble their code names. And second, there are just not enough common boys' names to go around. Girls with names beginning with Q, U, Y, X or Z do not have to worry, for code words with these initials are not on the lists. But other young ladies who are still unconvinced please take Andy's word that no offense is intended. Girls' names have been used as hurricane code words since 1953, in 1960,these code words were arranged in four lists, one list for each of four seasons. If a hurricane behaves worse than her wild relatives, its code name is struck from the lists for ten years and another is substituted. Hurricane Carol wrecked wild havoc in New England some years ago and the code name Carol will not be used again until 1965.
The hurricane code names for 1962 begin with Alma, Becky, Celia and Daisy. The 1963 code names begin with Arlene, Beulah, Cindy and Debra. The 1964 code names begin with Abby, Brenda and Cleo. In 1965 we have Anna, Betty and Carol beckon the list after a long rest.
In 1961, the weather satellite Tiros III recorded the birth of hurricane Esther and photographed four of her raging relatives. Esther was later seeded with crystals of silver iodine which converted tons of stormy rain into harmless clouds of ice and this secret weapon may be used again. A series of radar stations stand ready from Maine to Florida and planes are ready to fly over and into the storms to check them as they approach.