Bart_Adrian's Blog

A viewer recently asked why it seems we don't always hear about named tropical storms in alphabetical order. Last month, for example, residents of the continental U.S. heard much more about Tropical Storm Erin before they ever heard about Hurricane Dean.

The explanation is that tropical storms are named alphabetically as they develop. Dean developed into a named storm off the west coast of Africa on the morning of Tuesday, August 14th. Erin became a named storm nearly 24 hours later. Because Erin developed in the Gulf of Mexico and grew into an immediate threat to Texas, it received instant publicity in the continental U.S. Dean didn't receive much attention in the news until a few days later, when it began to threaten the eastern Caribbean.