User:Jason Rees/EPAC

Greek Names
During the 1985 Pacific hurricane season, the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center had to request additional names after they had exhausted the 21 names they had been given for the year and were subsequently given the names Xina, York and Zelda to use that season. Later in the 1980s, the decision was made to extend the list for the Eastern Pacific to 24 names on a permanent basis, while a contingency plan of using letters of the Greek Alphabet to name tropical cyclones was also introduced. Despite the seasonal list of names being exhausted during the 1992 Pacific hurricane season, the contingency plan of using the Greek Alphabet for names, did not have to be used until the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season breached its list of names. At the following session of the Hurricane Committee in March and April 2006, there was considerable discussion over the usage of the Greek Alphabet as a supplemental list names, with several views expressed about if a letter of the Greek Alphabet could be retired. Members of the committee noted that the usage of the Greek Alphabet had been responsible for a major political, economic and social impact, which it speculated would not have happened if a supplemental list of regular names had been used. As a result, it was unanimously decided that the Greek Alphabet would continue to be used if the seasonal list of names was used up.

At the 2010 Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, NOAA noted that various negative feedback had been received from the general public, media and emergency manager community, about the usage of the Greek Alphabet for naming tropical cyclones in 2005. As a result, it was recommended that the usage of the Greek alphabet when the seasonal naming list was exhausted, should be discontinued and replaced with a secondary naming list that used all of the conventions of the primary list. The conference accepted the recommendation and passed it on to the WMO's Hurricane Committee which rejected the proposal, as it felt that the usage of the Greek Alphabet was not expected to be frequent enough to warrant changing the existing naming procedures. In September 2020, after the seasonal list of names was exhausted, the NHC had to use its contingency plan again and name tropical cyclones using the Greek Alphabet. As the Greek letters were used, it was noted that there were issues with how some of the names were being translated into other languages and how they were pronounced as several of the names were very similar. It was also feared that there could be too much focus on the usage of the alphabet and not the impacts of a system, which it felt could distract from impact and safety messaging. As a result, a proposal was made at the following session of the Hurricane Committee to stop using the Greek Alphabet when the seasonal list of names for either the Eastern Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean was exhausted in a given season. The committee overwhelmingly voted in favour of the proposal, before it devised and approved a supplemental list of names for both basins, that would be used when the primary list of names for a season was exhausted.

Adolph/Isreal
During May 2001, the Hurricane Committee faced a lot of criticism from various Jewish leaders, as it was felt that the inclusion of the name Isreal in the seasonal list for 2001 was insensitive and disrespectful.