How Are Hurricanes Named?

◎供稿：羅亞琪

你可能知道颶風有時用人名來稱呼。雖然用人名來稱呼風暴似乎很奇怪，但隨著時間的推移，我們采用了這個方法。那么，人們如何命名颶風？為什么颶風會以人的名字命名呢？

Before we get into the naming process,let’s talk a bit about why hurricanes are named at all.Up until the 1950s,hurricanes were1)trackedby year and order,which turned out to be rather confusing when there was more than one storm occurrinɡ at once.Specifically,because it was hard to2)identifyone storm from another,broadcast information was often hard to understand and left people confused or concerned with information about a storm that may not even affect them.

At first,hurricanes were named accordinɡ to the phonetic alphabet,startinɡ with A each year.The names would follow Able,Baker,Charlie,and so on.This means the first-named hurricane was Able!

The practice of giving storms personal names appears to have begun with Clement Wragge,an Australian3)meteorologistwho in the 1890s entertained himself by naming storms after women,4)mythical 5)figures,and politicians that he didn’t like.The modern system of using personal names developed during World War II,when meteorologists began using women’s names—often those of wives or girlfriends.Short and quickly understood,names were easier to6)transmitover the radio and easier to keep straight if there was more than one storm in a given area.The system was formalized in 1953 when the American National Weather Service put together an alphabetical list of female names to be used for storms in the Atlantic basin.Male names were added to the list in 1979.

1) track [tr?k] v.追蹤

2) identify [a??dent?fa?] v.辨別

3) meteorologist [?mi?ti??r?l?d??st] n.氣象學家

4) mythical [?m?θ?kl ] adj.神話的

5) fiɡure [?f?ɡ?(r)] n.人物

So now that we’ve got some history,how do they actually name the hurricanes?

A special committee of the World Meteorological Organization develops lists of names to be used for hurricane.The name must be easily understood and short.Additionally,they must be culturally sensitive as they will be spoken in several different lanɡuaɡes.For the Atlantic basin there are six alphabetical lists of 21 names each,and the lists7)cycleyearly.So it is very likely,for example,that many of the names on the 2018 list,will recur in 2024.For the Western Pacific/South China Sea basin,where there are a wider variety of languages spoken,names on the lists are contributed by countries in the region.If a hurricane or typhoon is especially destructive,that name is retired from the list,such as Katrina (2005),Sandy (2012),Haiyan (2013),Meranti (2016),Harvey (2017),and Michael (2018).

Despite the fact that using human names might seem comical,the use of these names helps to keep people protected and informed.When it comes to spreading information,it is vital that the information is8)accurate,easily understood,and efficient in order to keep the public informed.The hurricane naminɡ process is a great example of this distribution of information.

6) transmit [tr?nz?m?t] v.傳輸

7) cycle [?sa?kl] v.循環

8) accurate [??kj?r?t] adj.準確的

在談論命名過程之前，讓我們先談談為什么要命名颶風。直到20 世紀50 年代，颶風都是按年份和順序進行排列的，當不止一場風暴同時發生時，情況就變得相當混亂。具體來說，由于很難將一場風暴與另一場風暴區分開來，廣播信息也難以理解，人們會對可能不會影響他們的風暴消息感到困惑和擔心。

起初，颶風是根據語音字母命名的，每年以A 開頭。名字順著埃布爾（Able）、拜克（Baker）、查理（Charlie）往后排。這意味著第一個得到命名的颶風被稱為埃布爾！

澳大利亞氣象學家克萊門特·瓦格可能是第一個用人名給風暴命名的人。在19 世紀90 年代，他自娛自樂，以他不喜歡的女性、神話人物和政治家的名字來命名風暴。在二戰期間，使用人名的現代命名系統發展起來了。當時，氣象學家開始使用女性的名字，通常是妻子或女朋友的名字。簡短易懂的名稱，更容易通過廣播傳播出去，在面對特定區域內不止一場風暴時，也能更容易保持準確性。該命名系統于1953 年正式成立，當時美國國家氣象局整理了一份按字母順序排列的女性姓名列表，用于給大西洋盆地的風暴命名。1979 年，命名列表中開始添加男性名字。

既然我們已經了解了一些歷史，那么實際上颶風是如何命名的呢？

世界氣象組織的一個特別委員會制定了颶風名稱列表。首先，這些名稱必須易于理解且簡短。此外，因為會被多種不同語言傳播出去，此類命名還要具備文化敏感性。大西洋盆地有六個按字母順序排列的命名列表，每個列表有21 個名稱，并且列表每年循環一次。因此2018 年颶風名單上的許多名字，很可能會在2024年再次出現。對于使用多種語言的西太平洋和南海盆地，命名名單上的名字則由該地區的國家提供。如果颶風或臺風特別具有破壞性，則該名稱將從列表中刪除，如卡特里娜（2005 年）、桑迪（2012 年）、海燕（2013 年）、梅蘭蒂（2016 年）、哈維（2017 年）和邁克爾（2018 年）。

盡管使用人名命名颶風可能看起來很滑稽，但使用這些名字有助于保護人們并讓人們了解情況。在信息的傳播過程中，為了讓公眾了解情況，信息的準確度、通俗易懂和有效性至關重要。颶風的命名過程，就是信息傳播方面一個很好的例子。