Judith Pena | April 5, 2023
Panama participated in the 45th session of the Hurricane Committee of Region IV of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in which it was represented by the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, engineer Ovigildo Herrera Marcucci (IMHPA).
This was the first face-to-face meeting since 2019, after three years of holding said meeting virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During this meeting the WMO decided to remove the names of Fiona and Ian from the hurricane list.
The Organization uses hurricane name lists to help communicate storm warnings and alert people to life-threatening hazards. In this region, hurricane names are reused every six years, unless a storm is so deadly that its name is no longer used.
This year it was decided that, in those lists, Farrah will be used instead of Fiona, while Idris will replace Ian.
More than 60 experts from 27 countries that make up the Region IV Hurricane Committee participated in the meeting.
It should be noted that the hurricane season, in our region, begins on June 1 and runs until November 30.
The Hurricane Committee is made up of experts from the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, and its area of competence is North America, Central America and the Caribbean (WMO Regional Association IV).
This meeting was held from March 27 to 29, 2023 in the city of San José, Costa Rica.
