It's being reported by the Associated Press that the World Meteorological Organization has officially retired five hurricane names from last year's season. Hurricane names are retired when a particular hurricance is so devastating that it would be inappropriate to reuse the name for another hurricane.
Katrina, of course, is on the list, given its status as the most devastating hurricane in recent memory and the one that almost destroyed New Orleans.
Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma are the other four hurricane names never to be used again.
The new names taking over those slots: Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney. They will enter the rotation in 2011.
Who can tell the ways of the WMO? My guess is that there's a whole argument made about name popularity, ethnic balance, etc. when they're making up the lists.
Hurricane Sean? I hadn't met more than two other Sean's in the first 20 years of my life, but since 21, I've been tripping over the name. It's only taken another 19 years for it to be finally popular enough to make the list.
Of course, I'll put all my energy into praying this name need never be retired for such reasons as its predecessors.
Oh, suddenly the lack of Q and U names makes more sense -- I was perplexed that they couldn't find three male and three female names for each, but if they had to retire Qs every so often it would become difficult.
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