Are Hurricanes Always Female?

Hurricane Irene is approaching the Grand Turk islands as a Cat 2 with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.  Six years ago today we were watching hurricane Katrina cross southern Florida as a Cat 1.  For now it appears Florida may escape the direct path of Irene, but we all know for sure that hurricanes are unpredictable.

Now some folks say that’s why they bear women’s names.  Ha!  Let’s dump that fable in the ditch post haste.  Her-a-cane?  Why not His-a-cane?  Let’s set the record straight.

The word originally came from Huakan, the male Mayan god, the “god-of-the-big-wind.”  The Caribbean Indians called him Hurican.  In Spanish the word became Huracan, in English, hurricane.  Giving hurricanes female names was just another example of man’s Garden of Eden goofs.  “It was the woman, Lord.  She did it.”

Nobody knows where the idea of naming storms came from; perhaps from Storm, a novel by George Stewart.  In George’s book, a junior meterologist had a personal habit of naming storms.  So, in 1953 weather officials began naming storms after women.  It took twenty-six years, until 1979 before the men got their names in the hat.  Now names are alternated, male, female, male, female.  And the fellas lost no time in distinguishing themselves.  Anybody ever hear of Gilbert, Hugo, or Andrew?

Rejoice Men.  You weather discrimination is at an end!