The storms, the Farrusco weather, with rain and wind are part of this time of year, but with names? Does it make sense to give a specific name every time there's a bit of bad weather? General Rule: No, but we've explained.
So, but...
Have you noticed that there are more days when it rains without a nickname than there are days when it rains with a nickname? This is exactly where I'm going to start. Whenever there is a depression system, the scientific name given to a storm that passes in national territory, usually coming from the North Atlantic, there is a monitoring by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), and this public institution is responsible for monitoring these storms.
If any of these storms are “too strong”, and this is or may be visible on the Surface Maps – Numerical Forecast Templates (that we've talked about here), Satellite Images and/or Radar Images, weather warnings are issued or are issued. It is precisely at the time when orange or red warnings are issued that the designation of the storm begins, respecting a previously approved list between IPMA and three other European counterparts.
Nomination of Atlantic Storms
Why was it decided to name storms, depressions, and tropical cyclones? – Because it is easier for everyone to remember (who does not remember the #LesliePT?) and allows uniformity between different territories, since these adverse weather phenomena know no borders.
The designation of storms in the North Atlantic, as referred to above, is normally carried out by agreement between governmental meteorological institutes belonging to the South-West European Group, namely: o IPMA, a AEMET (Spain) , a Meteo-France and MRI (Belgium). This agreement, which Belgium joined this year, and which began in December 2017, has the particularity of taking into account the different characteristics of issuing meteorological warnings from country to country, and provides that “the first meteorological service to raise an orange and/or red wind speed warning and/or gust during the passage of a storm or depression system shall give the name to the storm/depression, and after being named, they shall retain their name throughout their journey and until they are finished” (IPMA, 2017).
The designation of Atlantic storms by the European Southwest Group is coordinated with entities that make up the Western European Group for the North Atlantic: Met Office (United Kingdom), Met Éireann (Ireland) and KNMI (Dutch).
List of Storms for 2019/2020
Amelie, Bernard, Cecilia, Daniel, Elsa, Fabien, Gloria, Herve, Ines, Jorge, Karine,
Leon, Myriam, Norberto, Odette, Prosper, Raquel, Simon, Teresa, Valentin, Wanda
What about hurricanes?
In the case of hurricanes, with a season that usually begins on June 1 and ends on November 30, it is the National Hurricane Center (NHC), based in Miami, is responsible for closely monitoring the evolution of disturbances that may give rise to more serious tropical systems, known as hurricanes or tropical cyclones, and so name exclusively, according to a list also previously written but different from that used in ‘winter’ storms.
The NHC is responsible for the surveillance and monitoring of the entire area of the North Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and Northeast Pacific Ocean. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center.
A few more notes...
The lists of tropical cyclones are “recycled” every six years and follow an alphabetical order. In Asia besides names of people use names of flowers and animals (In Japan they had Hurricane Kujira which means whale); and the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used.
When we are faced with an extremely devastating tropical system, for example, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the name of this tropical system no longer appears on any new list, recycled or not, due to the potential recall of the name associated with such a storm, which passed in a given place.
The same principle is not foreseen for the time being for the so-called North Atlantic winter storm naming system, because its level of danger is very different from a tropical system, but it does not invalidate the fact that it is not considered serious due to the damage, also serious, that can cause, for example, explosive cyclogenesis. #GONG, January 2013.
This type of depression is characterized by a rapid drop in barometric pressure in 20hPA, in less than 24 hours. In the case of the storm #GONG, the depression had a pressure drop of 28hPa. This meteorological situation has led to a situation of very strong or exceptionally strong storm winds throughout the territory, in particular in the Central and Southern regions, with gusts exceeding 100 km/h in almost the entire territory.” (IPMA, 2013).
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