Hurricane season officially started on June 1st. Whenever a tropical system reaches tropical storm strength, it is given a name. The names that will be used are determined years in advance by the National Hurricane Center. There are names for each letter of the alphabet and the names alternate between girl and boys names. The "A" name also alternates from year to year between a boy and girl name to make it all equal out. This year the "A" name is Andrea, which of course is a girl name. So next year the "A" name is a boy name and is actually going to be Arthur. Names can be used again but sometimes with very large and destructive hurricanes a name can be retired. So far this year we have had two named storms in the Atlantic Ocean (Andrea and then Barry) so the next named storm you hear of will be Chantal. Here is the complete 2007 Atlantic Tropical System Name List:
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
