Tropical Storm Alpha Sets Naming Record

vekron writes "Tropical Storm Alpha formed Saturday in the Caribbean, setting the record for the most named storms in an Atlantic hurricane season. This is the first time the U.S National Hurricane Center has resorted to using the Greek alphabet since it began naming tropical cyclones in 1953. The previous record of 21 named storms had stood since 1933. Alpha was the 22nd to reach tropical storm strength this year, and the season doesn't end until November 30. At 8 p.m. EDT, Alpha was 70 miles south of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. Tropical storm warnings have been posted for the entire coastline of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and for the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The storm is moving northwest at about 15 mph with winds at the center of 40 mph and is expected to make landfall late Saturday or early Sunday. The National Hurricane Center is tracking this storm; it is offering updates about its development as an RSS feed."

Comments

So what's after Tropical Storm Omega?

[Sam Haine '95]

Tropical Storm Aleph?

Re:...so?

[Orp]

such as one storm 1902 that killed about 8000 people on the Texas coast, making it one of the worst disasters in American history.

Actually it was 1900, and it was the city of Galveston which was hit, and the high death toll was largely due to the fact that nobody was evacuated, and this was due in part to a turf war between the weather forecast offices in Galveson and Cuba.

"Isaac's Storm" written Erik Larson chronicles this storm and the events leading up to it. Highly recommended.

Re:...so?

[mikael]

You have three complete cycles. That is more then enough for the Nyquist Limit

This cycle is known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. The theory is that this is caused by interference effect between the sunspot cylces and El Nino/La Nina.

And this would seem to affect fishery catches fishery catches

Re:...so?

[Digitalia]

First, the Nyquist limit is inapplicable. It is not a valid tool for fitting a periodic relation to data.

Second, the PDO is completely irrelevant when one is discussing increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic. In the Atlantic, only one periodic effect is widely observed, and that is the North Atlantic oscillation. The NAO, as the name might suggest, does not have an effect on hurricanes in the South, its period is not the same as the possible periodic hurricane effect, and it changed phase in the 80s making it exceedingly unlikely that the two events are actually related in any meaningful way. Even the Antarctic Cirumpolar wave is most likely irrelevant, as it has a period of four years and directly effects only the South Atlantic. There may very well be another effect in the Atlantic, but three cycles is most certainly not enough to definitively say. Climatologists accept the PDO because it has been observed in data going back to 1661. Until sufficient evidence is provided for this Atlantic effect, we must not presume that it exists. It may simply be coincidence.

Cue the global warming posts

[MirrororriM]

Yes, we're going to see some "OMG! There are so many storms this year! It's global warming! Oh noes!!1!". It's inevitable with an article like this, so I'd just like to give my two cents on these multitude of storms and "global warming":

What gets me is all of these "record breaking lows/highs" and along with it comes "it hasn't been this hot/cold/stormy/etc since (insert 30 to 70 year old year here)". Well what was the excuse back then? Seasons and temperatures fluctuate all the time. Records aren't broken every day, nor every year...they just get randomly broken.

So please explain to me why exactly, when referring to 1933, there were 21 storms back then - was it global warming? No.

Before you mod this flamebait or troll, I'm just trying to make a logical point. I'm not a believer or non-believer of global warming, I just get sick of the years-ago referrals as if it were significant without someone thinking it out logically and using it for their "global warming" agenda.