Today marks the beginning of this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1st through November 30th. The good news for insurers is that hurricane modeling has improved over the years and produces vastly more predictive results than ever before. The bad news is that there are bound to be hurricanes that threaten human life and cause damages, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) once again predicting a busier than average hurricane season, at 60 percent chance of an above normal season. In fact, we've already seen our first named storm of the season when it formed off Bermuda on May 22nd. This makes 2021 the seventh straight year in which at least one named storm has developed in the Atlantic before the official start of the season.

Naming storms and hurricanes helps us to remember the storms, makes them easier to identify, aids in more effectively communicating and tracking the storm, and also helps people in predicted areas to stay safer when a named storm hits. The short, quick names used have been found to be quicker to communicate and less subject to error than the older, more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea. Also, if there are more than one tropical storm occurring at the same time, this helps identify and communicate tracking information and warnings.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center started assigning names to Atlantic storms in the early 1950's, but now the list is generated and maintained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The first storms were named according to a phonetic alphabet, such as Able, Baker, Charlie. So, the first hurricane of a season was always named 'Able', the second 'Baker', the third 'Charlie', and so on. In an effort to avoid the use of repetitive names, the national weather service revised the system so that all storms would be given female names. This practice mimicked the habit of naval meteorologists, who named storms after women, much as ships at sea were traditionally named for women. In 1978-1979, the system was revised to include both female and male names.