Do you favor or not naming Subtropical Systems?

[cycloneye]

I favor naming them because then the people can be alerted that something is out there even if the storm is not purely tropical and also the shipping lanes can be warned. What about you do you favor naming them or not?

[Anonymous]

I agree.

[chadtm80]

Im not sure why not

[weatherwindow]

i do not favor naming them until they acquire trop characteristics. for instance, sub trop storm forms, becomes sub trop storm #1....becomes trop storm arlene upon developing the necessary characteristics

[LarryWx]

I'd prefer not naming them. Why?

1) Storms that remain subtropical normally don't have nearly the same potential as tropical systems. They should be distinguished from each other. This can be done by naming the tropical ones and numbering the subtropical ones, the way it used to be done. Numbering instead of naming them doesn't prevent people from knowing about them.

2) One of the main reasons (if not THE main) for naming trop. storms in the first place was that you would often have more than one trop. system on the map at the same time, thus causing confusion. Subtropical storms occur much less frequently (~10% as many?). When was the last time there were two or more subtropical storms occurring at the same time?

3) From climo/statistical point of view, one can no longer just look at the last name of the season to know immediately how many official trop. storms there were. One would have to check the list to see if any were subtropical. (I am aware that once in a while a tropical doesn't ever get named, but that is beside the point imo.)

ASIDE: I wish the NHC wouldn't include in the list TD's that never make it to TS status like they did in 2004. That now makes it more difficult to know immediately how many tropical storms there were in any one season, and it also clutters up the map.

Here is the link to the 2004 list. (Note that #2 and #11 in the list were only TD's, the first time they've done this):

http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atl ... index.html

[HurricaneBill]

I support naming them because on many occasions, the subtropical storm will become tropical.

Naming the system would be helpful especially if the storm is close to land. If given a name, more people might pay attention to it. If it went nameless, people might shrug it off as some rain and wind.

If a subtropical system close to land suddenly became tropical and intensified quickly, this would be crucial. If the storm had been nameless, there might be controversy that people were unaware that a hurricane was there.

In fact, a situation did occur in 2001 when a subtropical system over Bermuda was in the process of becoming Hurricane Karen. Some areas of Bermuda did experience sustained hurricane force winds.

[Derek Ortt]

They should be numbered; however, full advisories should still be issued (STC's were always NHC's responsibility, but they often passed them off and then after the fact declared them as cyclones). In addition, they have always counted in the seasonal storm numbers.

No harm in numbering them, if advisories are issued as they should be

[Derek Ortt]

also,

once a subtropical storm has winds of 65KT, they have always then been named as hurricanes, even though they are subtropical

[Hurricanehink]

ASIDE: I wish the NHC wouldn't include in the list TD's that never make it to TS status like they did in 2004. That now makes it more difficult to know immediately how many tropical storms there were in any one season, and it also clutters up the map.

Here is the link to the 2004 list. (Note that #2 and #11 in the list were only TD's, the first time they've done this):

http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atl ... index.html

Just to let you know Larry, that isn't updated with the best track yet. For example, Ivan's loop isn't complete, #10 and Hermine started earlier, etc.

On topic, I favor naming Subs because
A) Most become tropical
B) If they don't, Subtropical Storms can get strong on the open ocean. They require the same warning out on the open ocean, so why a different name? Plus, in the rare case (don't know if it happened) that two subtropical storms are traversing the Atlantic, it might get confusing referring to the two.

[Derek Ortt]

TD 2 became Bonnie, so there is no question regarding this matter. TD 3 was Charley