Hurricane season officially starts on June 1 and lasts until November 30. Normally, Ohio is so far inland that we usually see little effect from hurricanes except from some rain by those that work their way far enough inland to the Ohio Valley.
However, Hurricane Ike last September left a million people in the dark and brought hurricane force winds to the Tri-state. It is one of three Atlantic storm names that have been retired by the World Meteorological Organization. Gustav and Paloma also made the list and have been retired.
An average hurricane season sees 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes. This year's Dr. Gray and his team from Colorado State are predicting a season that is close to average: 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes.
The WSI Energycast 2009 Tropical Forecast is a little higher. They are forecasting 13 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes.
This is the list of names for the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane season.
- Ana
- Bill
- Claudette
- Danny
- Erika
- Fred
- Grace
| - Henri
- Ida
- Joaquin
- Kate
- Larry
- Mindy
- Nicholas
| - Odette
- Peter
- Rose
- Sam
- Teresa
- Victor
- Wanda
|
There are 21 names for storms on the list each year. When there are more than 21 named tropical storms, the Greek alphabet is used.
This has happened only once in 2005. That year there was 28 storms – 27 of them were named and one was not. It formed as a subtropical storm in early October and was not initially recognized as a storm and thus was not named during the 2005 hurricane season.
The list of 21 names are rotated every 6 years. The names from the 2009 hurricane season will not be used again until 2015.
