Wilmington, NC

This week is National hurricane awareness week. It is time for you
to prepare for the 2012 hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane
season begins each year on June 1st and ends November 30th. Being
prepared can make a big difference in your ability to Cope when a
storm threatens.

A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone... a low pressure system
that develops in the tropics. Tropical cyclones are accompanied by
thunderstorms and... in the northern hemisphere... counter clockwise
surface winds.

There are three types of tropical cyclones. A tropical
depression... which is a low pressure system with maximum sustained
winds of 38 mph (33 kt) or less. A tropical storm... which is a low
pressure system with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph (34 to
63 kt). And a hurricane... which is an intense low pressure system
with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 kt) or higher.

Each year an average of 11 tropical storms develop over the Atlantic
Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Most of these remain over
open ocean and do not affect the United States. In a typical year 6
will become hurricanes with 2 becoming major... category 3 or higher.
In an average 3 year period 5 hurricanes will strike the United
States coastline... resulting in 50 to 100 deaths.

While eastern Pacific tropical cyclones are still called
hurricanes... in the western Pacific they are called typhoons and in
the Indian Ocean they are called cyclones.

Hurricane intensity is categorized based on the strength of the
maximum sustained winds which is a 1 minute average wind measured at
33 ft. The Saffir-Simpson wind scale ranks hurricanes on a scale of
1 to 5 with a category 1 hurricane being the least intense and a
category 5 being the most intense. The scale only takes wind speed
into account and can be deceiving since weaker storms can
cause more damage than stronger storms depending on when or
where they strike. In fact even tropical storms can cause
significant damage and loss of life. Tropical Storm Allison in 2001
caused almost 7 billion dollars in damage and resulted in 41
casualties in the United States.

When a tropical depression becomes a tropical storm... maximum
sustained winds reach 39 mph (34 kt)... the cyclone is given a name.
For hundreds of years hurricanes were given a name based on the
saints day on which the hurricane occurred. Later latitude and
longitude were used... but during world War 2 female names were first
used. In 1951 the United States experimented with using a phonetic
alphabet for storms but this was confusing and in 1953 the Weather
Service returned to the practice of using female names. Female names
were used exclusively until 1978 when both male and female were used
for storms in the Pacific. The following year... 1979... a 6 year list
of alternating male and female names were adopted for use in the
Atlantic Basin. Cyclone names are usually retired when cyclones
result in substantial damage... loss of life... or other special
circumstances.

No names were retired from this years list.

The list of names for the 2012 hurricane season is:

Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William