Filenews 18 March 2021
As tropical cyclones increase, appearing more frequently and earlier in the year over the warmer waters of the seas and especially the Atlantic, the World Meteorological Organization (MFA) has decided to stop the use of the Greek alphabet this year to name these cyclones.
The competent committee of the MSo considered that last year's use of names from the Greek letters caused confusion and focused more on the "exoticity" of Greek letters than on the danger represented by cyclones.
In addition, it considered that in 2020 the "baptism" of cyclones with the names "Zeta", "Ita" and "Theta", which sound similar (at least to the ears of English speakers...), caused problems, especially when two storms with such names from Greek letters coincided at the same time.
The Greek alphabet has only been used twice in 2005 and nine times in 2020 for naming Atlantic tropical cyclones.
Especially last year it was deemed necessary to use it, because there were many cyclones and the prescribed Latin names had been exhausted.
Following the new decision of the MFOs, this year even if there are more Atlantic cyclones and storms than the 21 for which English names have been predicted, meteorologists will not resort to the Greek alphabet again, but will use other names.
Source: RES - ICM
