Tropical Storm Alpha is official now:

[TroubleMan]

Un-freakin-believable.

NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER NORTH ATLANTIC OBJECTIVE AIDS FOR

TROPICAL STORM ALPHA (AL252005) ON 20051022 1800 UTC

...00 HRS... ...12 HRS... ...24 HRS... ...36 HRS...
051022 1800 051023 0600 051023 1800 051024 0600

LAT LON LAT LON LAT LON LAT LON
BAMD 16.5N 68.5W 17.7N 70.8W 19.3N 72.9W 22.0N 74.5W
BAMM 16.5N 68.5W 18.0N 70.7W 19.7N 72.3W 22.4N 73.5W
A98E 16.5N 68.5W 18.1N 70.5W 19.4N 72.4W 21.3N 73.6W
LBAR 16.5N 68.5W 17.9N 70.3W 19.7N 71.9W 22.3N 73.2W
SHIP 35KTS 41KTS 47KTS 51KTS
DSHP 35KTS 41KTS 33KTS 40KTS

...48 HRS... ...72 HRS... ...96 HRS... ..120 HRS...
051024 1800 051025 1800 051026 1800 051027 1800

LAT LON LAT LON LAT LON LAT LON
BAMD 26.6N 74.4W 38.9N 64.8W 37.7N 40.3W 28.1N 37.8W
BAMM 26.9N 72.9W 39.1N 63.4W 39.8N 40.8W 30.2N 33.3W
A98E 26.0N 72.2W 34.2N 63.9W 38.6N 46.5W 30.4N 31.4W
LBAR 26.5N 72.8W 42.1N 57.3W .0N .0W .0N .0W
SHIP 54KTS 57KTS 57KTS 39KTS
DSHP 43KTS 46KTS 46KTS 29KTS

...INITIAL CONDITIONS...
LATCUR = 16.5N LONCUR = 68.5W DIRCUR = 305DEG SPDCUR = 13KT
LATM12 = 15.4N LONM12 = 66.4W DIRM12 = 287DEG SPDM12 = 13KT
LATM24 = 14.7N LONM24 = 63.6W
WNDCUR = 35KT RMAXWD = 30NM WNDM12 = 30KT
CENPRS = 1005MB OUTPRS = 1008MB OUTRAD = 175NM SDEPTH = D
RD34NE = 40NM RD34SE = 0NM RD34SW = 0NM RD34NW = 40NM




_______________
No global warming, huh?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. Wow.

Aplha, Beta, Omega... what's after those three? How far in the Greek alphabet are we going to get?

[Lisa]

3. I think it would go Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon

... and I really don't want to see if it goes past Zeta, Eta, Theta ... (Omega would be the last letter of the alphabet. Yikes!)

[skids]

11. Now next year do they start with Alpha again?

Or pick up where they left off last year?

[TheWraith]

13. They start fresh with a new list of 24 names next year. NT.

[skids]

24. Yeah, but when they get past W again...

...is what I meant.

[Lisa]

25. good question. I think it would be confusing if they resumed with ...

Gamma, Delta, or wherever they left off last time. That would assume that everyone knew how many "extra" names they'd had the previous year -- "Was Epsilon in 2005 or 2006? I forget". A reasonable way to do this might be to append the year. It doesn't add that much more onto the name, and it's the sort of thing that people would do anyway.

"Was your house destroyed in Alpha 2005?"

"No, we actually got through that one okay -- it was Alpha 2007 that really clobbered us."

[zippy890]

2. This doesn't feel right at all

A HURRICANE NAMED ALPHA

JEEBUS HELP US ALL

D'ya think God, Yahweh, Allah, Ganesha, the Great Spirit or whatever you want to call it

MIGHT BE A LITTLE PISSED?

Or is it Mother Nature's been knocked off balance? However you look at this, its just too weird.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. The Flying Spaghetti Monster needs MORE CHEESE!

:evilgrin:

--p!

[LiberalEsto]

9. Try Gaia

aka Mother Earth

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Suppose Alpha (or Beta or Gamma or Upsilon) is a bad storm

How do you retire the name of a letter of an alphabet?

Next year, for instnace, the list will run Alpha, Beta, (no Gamma), Delta, etc.?

--p!

[Horse with no Name]

6. Interesting question

I'm sure if we don't find out this year, we will the next...or the next..

[TroubleMan]

7. From what I've heard:

They'll rename it and then retire it.

However, apparently they won't retire the Greek names.

____

I don't know if that's true or not....just what I've heard.

[TroubleMan]

10. Also, another question to think about:

What would they do if they ran out of Greek names?

Probably will never happen, but I'm curious.

[Dogmudgeon]

16. I think there are 22 letters in the Greek alphabet

They can squeeze out two more with the archaic letters Digamma (W) and Qoppa (not Kappa).

We'd be into 50-storm territory then. With another two decades of Global Warming, that is more likely than not. Remember the "mean temperature anomaly", or difference from the 140-year trend, right now is only about 0.6C, or just over one degree Farenheit.

One degree. Double the hurricanes. (Maybe -- there could be many other factors involved.)

In 20 years, with the speed-up of CO2 release, that could be three or four times what it is now, a 2F-4F increase.

I think that the real "head for the hills!" alarm will be sounded with the first tropical cyclone in the Arctic Ocean. Could be next year, but I'm thinking it's about a decade away.

--p!

[TroubleMan]

18. Scary to think about, but now having an "Alpha" makes me wonder.

Nobody ever thought we'd get to Alpha, either.

[AirmensMom]

20. It might not take that many storms.

Any one of those letters could cause enough damage to be retired forever. It would only take one per year to shrink the alphabet enough to run out in 22 years. They normally reuse letters when they retire a name ... but how can they reuse Alpha, Beta, etc.? Alpha-2?

:shrug:

[TroubleMan]

21. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5135216#5135368

Once again, I'm not completely sure about that.

Also, the "Alpha-2" system is a good idea.

[AirmensMom]

22. Oops.

Sorry ... thought I'd read them all. :blush:

I'm having a bad DU day. :hide:

[uppityperson]

8. wow

[Crunchy Frog]

12. Is this the first time we've gotten to the Greek alphabet?

Also, don't these things usually travel east to west? Why does this thing look like it's going to head east? Sorry for displaying my ignorance on this subject.

[TroubleMan]

14. Yes, and it will probably hit Haiti and maybe Bermuda

The whole Atlantic basin is soaked, so any tropical wave that hits anywhere pretty much is dangerous now.

[Horse with no Name]

15. "I am the alpha and the omega...

the First and Last, the beginning and the end"...Revelations 22:13

I'm not into the end of times stuff, but it is creepy.

[TroubleMan]

17. A Hurricane Omega would be a real scary name

nt.

[Danmel]

19. They could go the the sinilar Hebrew Alphabet

Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hay, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud. and so on (also 22 letters)

[Solon]

23. OK, I'll make the first prediction...

If the pattern roughly holds, we'll see either TS or Hurrican Epsilon or Zeta before the Hurricane season is over with, and maybe more in the after-season.