Why Hurricanes Named Only After Women?

The weather outside is hard to predict; it may be sunny, rainy, snowy, stormy, or mild from one day to the next, or it might be any number of these all in one day. Eventually you just learn to deal with it without complaining too much.

Nobody messes with Mother Nature – and even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to make her change. Just like your own mother, once Mother Nature has decided what she's doing, she's doing it, and there's no stopping her. You want to go to the beach today? If she's not having a good day, you're not having a good day.

But if you think Mother Nature's a beast, what about her whirlwind children? Yes, those little babies that can wreak complete havoc with their torrential rains, fierce winds, and flash floods. Hurricanes are a force to be reckoned with, which is perhaps why they are often named after women! After all, isn't that how women are? Unpredictable, dangerous, and they leave chaos in their wake?

Actually, the myth that hurricanes are named only after women isn't true. It USED to be true – before 1978 all hurricanes were named after women. The exclusively male club of meteorologists up until that point must have thought that was pretty funny. But then a few women's rights movements fought the sexist implications of the idea, especially when women started becoming meteorologists. So now we alternate between male and female names for hurricanes. Now the question is does it mean anything different for a hurricane to be named after a woman versus after a man? Not really.

YET, people think it does. According to some studies, people don't take female hurricanes as seriously as they do male names (as though the "gender" of a tropical storm actually means something). Newsflash: the name doesn't matter! Ever hear of Hurricane Sandy, or Hurricane Ike? What about Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Mitch, or Hurricane Andrew? I don't think the name made any difference in how dangerous any of these guys (or girls) were.

And I don't know about you, but when I hear that a hurricane's coming my way, I don't care what its name is – I only care about getting away as fast as possible and

calling 911 Remediation to restore my home when I get back.

Now that you've learned that hurricanes really aren't exclusively named after women (and that their name doesn't matter anyway), you can forget about gender issues with tropical storms. And the next time you find yourself coming up against a hurricane, don't stop to ask its name. Just get out of the way, because Mother Nature's coming through!