The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has developed a new name system that aims to alert threatened populations to the severity of approaching hurricanes, according to a press release from the National Hurricane Center.
The name system is the result of a recent study that determined that people are less threatened to prepare by hurricanes with female names, and, as a result, hurricanes with female names result in more casualties.
The new “two-name” naming system works by giving a storm a more threatening name when it grows in strength.
According to a Skip Stormyson, a spokesman for the WMO, the addition of safe “tame” names has opened up a marketable venue.
“We tried selling storm names before in the early 90s, but it was a colossal failure when Hurricane ‘Crystal Pepsi’ claimed several hundred lives along the gulf coast,” Stormyson said.