METEOROLOGISTS were forced to break out the Greek alphabet yesterday to name Atlantic storms for only the second time ever after the 2020 hurricane season blew through their usual list, ending on Tropical Storm Wilfred.

Tropical storm Beta was packing maximum sustained winds of 65km/h in the Gulf of Mexico, some 450km off the mouth of the Rio Grande, the National Hurricane Centre said.

It is expected to reach hurricane intensity over the weekend, according to the Miami-based centre.

At the same time, subtropical storm Alpha was forming on the other side of the Atlantic, some 190km off the coast of Portugal. With maximum sustained winds of 70km/h, it is not expected to intensify, the NHC said.

The storms were named after letters of the Greek alphabet, after Tropical Storm Wilfred formed early yesterday, exhausting the list of names predetermined by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) for tropical storms.

The list consists of 21 male and female names that alternate in alphabetical order and change every year. The WMO chooses names that are easily recognisable in a region where several languages are spoken, so no names starting with X, Y or Z are chosen.

In the unusual event that the list is used up, the WMO identifies storms by letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, gamma, delta… as has been the case this year, which has seen an unusually active hurricane season.

“Get out the Greek alphabet for the rest of 2020,” the NHC said in an update on Wilfred.

Meteorologist MJ Ventrice of The Weather Company tweeted that “this is the second time in history we’ll be using the Greek alphabet.”

The first time, he added was in 2005, when Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma devastated Louisiana and Florida, respectively.

Those names, as well as Maria, Irma and Harvey, have been retired permanently from the WMO lists due to the devastation they caused.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Teddy has reached Category 4, the second-highest level. Teddy is swirling around the central Atlantic and could pass near Bermuda, just a week after Hurricane Paulette. – AFP, September 19, 2020.