Back in the 1880s, British meteorologist Clement Wragge began naming after women tropical cyclones that threatened Australia. However, in the Atlantic Basin the practice of naming tropical cyclones did not begin until 1950 when the previously anonymous storms were named using a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.). In 1953, the National Hurricane Center began naming storms for women, and this practice continued until 1979, when the World Meteorological Organization and the National Weather Service started using a list alternating between women and men’s names, a system that is still used today.
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