National Hurricane Center
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center is the division of National Weather Service's Tropical Prediction Center responsible for tracking and predicting the likely behavior of tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes.
When tropical storm or hurricane conditions are expected within 36 hours, the center issues the appropriate watches and warnings via the news media and NOAA Weather Radio. Although an agency of the United States, the World Meteorological Organization has designated the NHC as Regional Specialized Meteorology Center for the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific. As such, the NHC is the central clearinghouse for all tropical cyclone forecasts and observations occurring in these areas, regardless of their effect on the US.
The National Hurricane Center has its roots in an 1898 declaration by then-President William McKinley for the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) to establish a hurricane warning network. As communications and forecasting evolved, responsibility for issuing hurricane warnings was eventually centralized in the Miami Weather Bureau office.
The Miami office was designated the National Hurricane Center in 1967, and given responsibility for Atlantic tropical cyclones. In 1984, the NHC was separated from the Miami Weather Service Forecast Office, which was given the responsibility of handling standard weather forecasting and observation for southeastern Florida. By 1988, the NHC gained responsibility for eastern Pacific tropical cyclones as the former Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center in San Francisco was decommissioned.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the WSR-57 weather radar and the anemometer off the roof of Gables One Tower, then the location of the NHC's offices. The radar was replaced with a WSR-88D NEXRAD system. In 1995, the NHC moved into a new hurricane resistant facility on the campus of Florida International University.
Former NHC Director Bob Simpson was co-creator of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The current director of the National Hurricane Center is Max Mayfield, who recently announced his intention to retire in January, 2007.
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Hurricane specialists
The NHC's hurricane specialists are the chief meteorologists that predict the actions of tropical storms. The specialists work rotating eight-hour shifts from May through November, monitoring weather patterns in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific oceans. Whenever a depression appears, they issue advisories every six hours until the storm runs its course. Public advisories are issued more often when the storm threatens land. The specialists coordinate with officials in each country likely to be affected. They forecast and recommend watches and warnings.
Each specialist signs forecasts and advisories with their last name, sometimes issuing joint statements with other NHC staff members.
Outside of the hurricane season, the specialists concentrate on public education efforts. [1] [2]
Current specialists
Senior hurricane specialists
- Dr. Lixion Avila, specialist since 1987
- Dr. Jack Beven, specialist since 1999
- Dr. James Franklin, specialist since 1959
- Dr. Richard Knabb, specialist since 2005
- Dr. Richard Pasch, specialist since 1989
- Stacy Stewart, specialist since 1999 and the Warning Coordination Meteorologist
Hurricane specialists
- Eric Blake, specialist since 2006
- Dan Brown, specialist since 2006
- Michelle Mainelli, specialist since 2006
- Jamie Rhome , specialist since 2006
- Chris Landsea, Science and Operations Officer (SOO) since 2005
Former and current directors
- Gordon Dunn (1965-1967)
- Robert Simpson (1967-1973)
- Neil Frank (1973-1987)
- Bob Sheets (1987-1995)
- Bob Burpee (1996-1997)
- Jerry Jarrell (1998-2000)
- Britt Max Mayfield (2000-present)
Hurricane naming process
In the 1953 Atlantic season, the Center began naming storms which reach tropical storm intensity with human names. This replaced a short term and confusing 3-year plan (involving the 1950, 1951, and 1952 hurricane seasons) to name storms using the phonetic alphabet, and instead started using English alphabetic order. Previous to these systems, tropical storms were referred to by map coordinates for identification. Initially, storms only had female names, but after some protest, male and female names were alternated beginning in the 1979 Atlantic season.
The World Meteorological Organization now creates and maintains the annual lists. Names are used on a six-year rotation. The deadliest or most notable storms have their names retired from the rotation. In the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, Kirk replaced Keith, which was retired in 2001 following its effects during the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season, while in the Eastern Pacific, no storms from 2000 were retired and thus all the names used in 2000 will be reused for the 2006 season. The 2006 lists will be used again in 2012, except for any names that are retired before then.
If there are more than 21 named storms in any given Atlantic season
or 24 in an Eastern Pacific season, storms will be named for the
letters of the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha and following
the list in order. Greek letters were used for the first time in
the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and have yet to be used in the
Eastern Pacific ocean.
See also
External links
Original article / information obtained (seeded) from Wikipedia [3]