Female-Named Hurricanes Are Deadlier

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hurricaneTalk about a femme fatale. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesshows that hurricanes with female names are historically more deadly because people don’t take them as seriously.

“[Our] model suggests that changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley … to Eloise … could nearly triple its death toll,” researchers from the University of Illinois and Arizona State University write in their report.

Of the 47 most-damaging hurricanes between 1950 and 2012, storms with male names produced an average of 23 deaths, while those with feminine names killed 45 people on average. Read more at The Washington Post.

{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}


3 COMMENTS

  1. Blew it with the headline again. You missed the point. “Female” hurricanes aren’t more deadly. People tend to brush them them off more easily. Maybe “People foolishly ignore hurricanes with female names.”

    And what about Hurricane Andrew? That one wasn’t exactly a casual summer storm either. Possibly you should read an article carefully before choosing a headline.

  2. Oldtimer, I believe that the headline is, in fact, accurate. It didn’t say that the hurricanes were stronger, just deadlier – due to the human factor.

  3. Yaak – unfortunately most people aren’t as logical as you are. Most people just glance at the headline. I do agree, though, that it did alert people to the necessity of taking hurricane warnings seriously. Having lived through one, I now take all storm warnings seriously, but as some of the stories came out of Sandy, we see that not everyone is so cautious.

    Perhaps the ambiguity turns out to be useful after all.

    Have a great Shavuos!

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