| In 1953 the U.S. National Weather Service started to give names to tropical storms or hurricanes. There are six alphabetical lists, which are used in rotation, so the names used last year will be used again in 2011. When a particlar hurricane has caused a lot of damage and grief, its name is taken off the list and replaced with a new one. The original lists only contained women's names, but in 1979 - allegedly after lots of protests by feminists - the lists were updated to include men's names as well. Nowadays, the lists are maintained by the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva. |