Who in the government decides what the Hurricane names will be?
The World Meteorological Organization maintains the lists of tropical storm names. For the Atlantic Ocean there are six alphabetical lists that are reused on a rotating basis. Each lists alternates between male and female names. Prior to 1979 only female names were used. Names that are associated with especially destructive and/or deadly storms are replaced. In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on. If a storm forms in the off-season, it will take the next name in the list based on the current calendar date. For example, if a tropical cyclone formed on December 28th, it would take the name from the previous season’s list of names. If a storm formed in February, it would be named from the subsequent season’s list of names. The World Meteorological Organization is part of the United Nations and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. From
