Tuesday 8 September 2015

On the Naming of Winds

(Not a new idea...)

“Public given the chance to name UK and Irish storms”.

From ‘As Safety Saw It’:

What’s in a name?

            Contemporary publications report that a hurricane which tore across America recently at about 100 m.p.h. was known as Ione*, and recalls that last year a similar storm was called Hilda. Here, where during the winter months the wind (we call it breeze) frequently reaches hurricane force there are fascinating possibilities for the local met. men. The weather usually provides plenty of scope and there is a fine range of local names available – Ineag, Dollag or Katag would compare favourably with Ione or Hilda; always provided of course that the met. office issued the usual disclaimer about reference to anyone living or dead. This would prevent misunderstanding should some bodach [old man] put in a claim for insurance on the grounds that Chirsteag [Chrissie] had blown his corn-stack into Broad Bay.

M.S. in Stornoway Gazette, 18 & 21/10/1955
As I See It* column, p.3


*The full collected articles may be read on pdf here (this is an extract from p.4 of the booklet) 



* Hurricane Ione /ˈəʊn/ was a strong, Category 4 hurricane that affected North Carolina in September 1955, bringing high winds and significant rainfall.[1][2] It came on the heels of Hurricanes Connie and Diane,[1] and compounded problems already caused by the two earlier hurricanes. Spawned by a tropical wave which left the African coast on September 6, the system became a tropical depression in the tropical North Atlantic, before turning northwest and developing into a hurricane. After turning back to the west east of the Bahamas, Ione turned northwest and northward, moving across eastern North Carolina before moving east-northeastward out to sea. Ione caused $600 million (2005 USD) in damage, much of it to crops across North Carolina. As a result of Ione's impacts seven people lost their lives.
From Wikipedia

1 comment:

  1. And now Storm Callum, who'd have thought it - but Calum would not have approved of the spelling!

    ReplyDelete