Sunday, September 10, 2017

The Hurricane Couple

Who are they? They are Harvey and Irma Schluter, the hurricane couple. The New York Times has the story: they've been married for 75 years and they marvel that two gigantic hurricanes were named after them. (via American Digest.)


 

1 comment:

Ares Olympus said...

A nice story. I note he was about 29 and she was about 18 when they got married. I don't suppose there'll be an uptick in Harveys and Irmas being born, but you never know. Maybe babies conceived under a major hurricane will start this tradition?

So to win this honor, a couple should pick a spouse whose first name first letter is an odd number of letters away from our, and then wait a long time: (ACEG/I/KMOQSUWY,BDF/H/JLNPRTVXZ).

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The explanation is simple. Since 1979, the World Meteorological Organization has alternated men’s and women’s names for tropical storms born over the Atlantic.

Six master lists of names are kept and used in rotation, so the minor hurricane names of 2017 will appear again in 2023. Only hurricanes that are costly or deadly enough to be memorable have their names retired.
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