ry and early twentieth century, hurricanes were named simply by their location. (ie. Hurricane Texas, Hurricane Louisiana, etc.) After World War Two, only female names were used, but after 1978, both male and female names were used. The first storm of the year begins with the letter 'A' and each subsequent storm follows in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female. A name is given to a storm only when it reaches tropical storm strength (when winds are above 60 miles per hour). After a storm receives the impressive category 3 rating, which means winds are blowing at over 115 miles per hour, the name is retired for ten years before it can return to the list. Here are some of the names on the year 2000 list: Aletta, Bud, Carlotta, Daniel, Emilia, Fabio, John, Zeke for the Eastern Pacific storms, and Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Keith, and Williamfor the North Atlantic storms. Now we come to the Coriolis effect, a factor crucial for hurricane forecasters. Named after the French physicist Gaspard de Coriolis, the Coriolis effect is the force or acceleration acting on the motion of bodies in a rotating system of reference.2 To put it a little more simply, an object moving above the earth in a northerly or southerly direction will be deflected in relation to the rotation of the earth. This deflection is clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. To better understand this principal, lets look at a scenario involving a merry-go-round. Say you and a friend wanted to play catch on a flat, round merry-go-round. When the ride is still, obviously you can throw the ball to each other with no problem. But let's say that the ride started rotating counterclockwise, as the earth does as viewed from the North Pole. When you throw the ball and it's in the air, the merry-go-round is spinning beneath the ball, and for you and your friend, the ball appears to veer to the right, like this:Myt...
