For the none of you who didn't figure it out, this is a thread about our friend the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season, since we'll know within the next one-two days the identity of the winners of the "Retire-an-Hurricane-name 2005" contest.
The decision to require a hurricane is made as follow : first, a nation affected by the hurricane propose the name for retirement, then the world meteorological organization votes on whether the name will be retired.
We don't know all names proposed for 2005; what we do know is that (surprise, surprise) America proposed three : Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Given their intensity, it is exceedingly unlikely that any of them will NOT be retired.
Other hurricanes may also be retired depending on the decisions of other countries. Emily (which, after end-of-year review of all hurricane data, has been reclassified as yet another C-5 - making 2005 both the year with the MOST and EARLIEST C-5), is a likely candidate ; so is Dennis (Cuba gets to make that call), and Stan stands a pretty good chance of hitting the dirt depending on how central american countries feel (remember mudslides associated with Stan caused some heavy death tolls).
An outrider possibily for retirement is Vince, which, though it was barely even a category-1, affected countries that usually never see hurricanes (Portugal, Spain); they might be tempted to propose it for retirement as a result.
In addition, several other names have been "retired" - the WMO has already confirmed that a new backup hurricane names list would be created, filtering all the Greek Letters out of action. Thus, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta are all effectively retired, if not in name.
The decision to require a hurricane is made as follow : first, a nation affected by the hurricane propose the name for retirement, then the world meteorological organization votes on whether the name will be retired.
We don't know all names proposed for 2005; what we do know is that (surprise, surprise) America proposed three : Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Given their intensity, it is exceedingly unlikely that any of them will NOT be retired.
Other hurricanes may also be retired depending on the decisions of other countries. Emily (which, after end-of-year review of all hurricane data, has been reclassified as yet another C-5 - making 2005 both the year with the MOST and EARLIEST C-5), is a likely candidate ; so is Dennis (Cuba gets to make that call), and Stan stands a pretty good chance of hitting the dirt depending on how central american countries feel (remember mudslides associated with Stan caused some heavy death tolls).
An outrider possibily for retirement is Vince, which, though it was barely even a category-1, affected countries that usually never see hurricanes (Portugal, Spain); they might be tempted to propose it for retirement as a result.
In addition, several other names have been "retired" - the WMO has already confirmed that a new backup hurricane names list would be created, filtering all the Greek Letters out of action. Thus, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta are all effectively retired, if not in name.
