Hurricanes are named to make it easier for people to identify them, as scientific terms are difficult to pronounce and remember.
Hurricanes used to be named after Saints, but in the 50’s it was decided to give them women’s names.
However, due a strong criticism in 1979, the World Meteorological Organization and the United States Meteorological Service decided to give them feminine and masculine names, alternately.
Every year, meteorologists from the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America come together to define the list of names for the hurricane season using the letters of the alphabet. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not included because there are just a few names that begin with those letters.
Hurricanes are named in English, Spanish and French and the names can be repeated. But, in the case of the most destructive hurricanes, their names are kept in the registers and no longer used.
Hurricanes Katrina (2005), Mitch (1998) and Tracy (1974) are not listed because of the catastrophes they caused.
On Tuesday, tropical storm Otto became a hurricane and it’s expected to affect Costa Rica in the coming hours.