Recently, I found an undated article, “New England Hurricanes”. I planned to write about all the storms that made their presence known to our coast in the months of August or September. But, then I came across a 1950 hurricane named Dog and the focus of this article shifted.
Dog was a category 5 storm that reached up to185 miles per hour. Fortunately, it did not make landfall on the east coast. The storm did cause widespread power outages along the Cape, and the deaths of up to12 fishermen and $3,000,000 worth of damages were recorded in that area. However, in our area there was only light to moderate rainfall of 1 to 5 inches and like with the current Hurricane Ernesto, there were rough seas along the beaches.
Hurricane Dog holds the record for the longest category 5 Atlantic hurricane as it lasted at that level for 60 hours, but what interested me more was its name. First, I thought it might be a typo of either Doug or Dot, but that wouldn’t gibe with what I thought I knew about the naming of hurricanes.
I knew that from the first recorded hurricanes in the 17th century up to the mid-1900s, these storms were designated by the year in which they occurred. I knew that women’s names were substituted for the dates and that for many years all storms were named for women. What I didn’t know about was the use of animal names.
A bit of research set me straight. Hurricanes were named for women beginning in 1953. In 1978, male names were added. However, from 1950 through 1952, Atlantic hurricanes were named using the joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. You know- Abel, Baker, Charlie and yes, Dog.
Each year, tropical storms are named in alphabetical order (using both male and female names) when they develop sustained wind speeds of more than 33 knots. The names on the list can be reused after six years unless the hurricanes were extreme like Carol, Camille or Katrina. There are quite a lot of names on the do not reuse list. At first, I was going to list them but there far too many, including a Hurricane Connie.
So, now I know why there was a Hurricane Dog, and it’s not because a weatherman had a much beloved pet poodle and as always, I’m happy to share this historical tidbit with you. Hopefully, we’ll be able to look back this December when hurricane season closes to a year with no major hurricanes landing on our coast.
By Connie Eshbach
