Hurricane Haven

I was thrilled to open the mailbox and find a very official looking letter in a brown envelope from Florida.  NOAA replied to my request that a hurricane be named after Haven!  Here is their answer:

Dear Mr. Thomas,

Thank you for your e-mail. {It was actually a letter}

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center.  They are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  Six lists are used in rotation.  Thus, the 2011 list will be used again in 2017.

The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity.  If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO Region IV committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues), the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

It is certainly possible that the name “Haven” could be selected sometime in the future if a storm with a female name beginning with the letter “H” must be replaced.

Kind regards,

Dennis Feltgen

Public Affairs Officer

Meteorologist

NOAA Communications & External Affairs

National Hurricane Center

This would mean that the earliest possible storm to be named after my daughter would be in 2018.  For this to occur, next year’s tropical storm Helene would have to be a very destructive one.  If we miss that, then the next date would be 2020 as long as the 2014 storm Hanna is devastating.  Failing that, the new date would be 2022 as long as the 2016 storm Hermine causes a big enough economic impact.

I won’t be rooting for death and destruction any time soon, but should those factors all come together and cause need of a new “H” name, I hope Mr. Dennis Feltgen can sway the committee to consider the name Haven.