Talking to my nephew in Tennessee last week and he said “well Victor’s coming your way… button down the hatch.”

It took my mind a few seconds to adjust as to what he was alluding to, and I quickly said where did they get the name of Victor for a hurricane?

Our telephone conversation got me thinking about the names of hurricanes we have already had this year and so I googled Hurricane names and found an interesting informative article written in the Fall & Winter Old Farmer’s 2021 Almanac.

There was no author for this informative story given under the headline of “How are Hurricanes Named and Who Names Them?

According to this writing “Native Americans called these destructive storms hurakons, after a great spirit who commanded the east wind.”

Interesting note in this article is that the list of names for each hurricane season are chosen by the World Meteorological Organization not the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The list of names have been maintained since 1953 (originally by the National Hurricane Center and for the 2021 hurricane season, the list of names from 2015 is being used again.

Also noted in this article is that those names not retired from the list this year will be used again in the 2027 season.

An interesting note in this article is that the names of especially destructive hurricanes are usually retired and not used again.

As to when a hurricane is given a name it was noted that tropical storms are given names as soon as they display a rotating circulation pattern and wind speeds of 39 miles per hour.

A tropical storm develops into a hurricane when wind speeds reach 74 miles per hour.

We thank the Fall and Winter Almanac for this very informative information on those crazy-named storms we experience from June 1 through November 30.