Why the Name Katrina?

Lots of people think that hurricanes were always named after women - because of our volatile nature, no doubt - and that only recently did they start alternating between male and female names because of feminist outcry. Not true.

Prior to 1950 storms weren't officially named at all. From 1950 to 1952 they were named simply Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George...not very imaginative, but it sufficed. From 1953 to 1978 someone (my guess a man going through a nasty divorce) decided to use only female names. Finally, in 1979, they started alternating between male and female names. A list of names has been established by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

Hurricanes are named alphabetically, years in advance and starting the alphabet over each year. (If you get a Hurricane Wanda, you know you have had a busy storm season.) The Atlantic and the Pacific have separate naming lists.

These are the names assigned to Atlantic storms for the 2005 Hurricane Season:

Retired Names - Often the same names are used over and over, year after year, but when there is a particularly bad storm that has had a severe impact on the population they retire the name and it is never used again. There will never again be another Hurricane Andrew! Other storms that have had their names retired are:

Alphabetical list of retired names

SOURCE: National Hurricane Center and MarshB Notes