ABS news Australia recently reported that meteorologists down under are re-considering the tradition of bestowing storms male and female names. According to Alan Sharp who manages the tropical cyclone warning services for Australia, questions have been raised in response to American researchers’ findings that storms bearing female names may be taken less seriously than storms carrying male names. Whether or not the decades of results gathered by American investigators working within Gender Studies, Psychology, and Statistics actually apply to Australia has not yet been demonstrated.
Based on work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this assertion is to be taken quite seriously. As reported in an article from the Washington Post, some research indicates that simply “changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley […] to Eloise[…] could nearly triple its death toll.” These findings are important for risk management.