i'm a tropical storm!

i found out yesterday that a current tropical storm and i share the same name. upon hearing this, i was so honored that the meteorologists of the world think so highly of my name that they are willing to add it to the list of hurricanes. but i came to find out that it was already on the list, and i should have known this much earlier in my life. you see, hurricane names are set alphabetical lists, alternating male and female names, that rotate every six years. names are used so that weather stations can communicate quickly about the storm, instead of using latitude and longitude identification. there is a pacific list and an atlantic list. so there was actually a tropical storm erin in 2001, but i guess it never got big enough to make news. (apologies for the outdated links - they serve their purpose though)

so basically, either you are a hurricane or you're not...with the exception of the newly added names from time to time. when a storm is particularly devastating, they retire the name and replace it with a new one- i.e. katrina & hugo. (retired names)

and, another little tidbit of cocktail trivia - storms used to all be named female names until 1978, when the world meteorological organization starting incorporating male names as well. if that's not equality, i don't know what is.

and that is the science lesson for today, class.

**fall softball game 1 tomorrow night. team name: knocked up - because three of our players are benched due to impregnation. pretty funny, huh.