Facing an unprecedented 38th named system before October, the National Hurricane Center announced Friday it has formally bypassed the Greek alphabet. The agency will instead assign the next major tropical cyclone a non-phonetic symbol from the legacy Microsoft font suite.
Facing an unprecedented 38th named system before October, the National Hurricane Center announced Friday it has formally bypassed the Greek alphabet and will assign the next Atlantic tropical cyclone an unpronounceable Wingdings character. The storm, which rapidly intensified over record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, will be officially designated in all federal advisories as the symbol for an open file folder.
We simply did not model an emissions scenario where we would deplete the standard, auxiliary, and Cyrillic naming lists within a single fiscal quarter.
The shift to non-phonetic dingbat fonts comes as ocean heat content crosses another tipping point, rendering historical naming conventions mathematically obsolete. Broadcasters have reportedly been instructed to refer to the Category 4 system by verbally describing the visual icon, while FEMA internal guidance suggests field agents simply press Alt+0193 on standard numeric keypads when filing disaster declarations.
While major oil operators including Chevron and ExxonMobil reported a combined $14 billion in quarterly profits this week, NHC meteorologists were forced to spend Thursday morning downloading legacy typography packs to ensure the storm's trajectory could be rendered on public warning graphics.
The WMO noted in its filing that if the current rate of rapid intensification continues through the weekend, the subsequent storm will be named using the Webdings symbol for a fax machine.