Why Xynthia has such a name

Last week-end in France there was a terrible storm, named Xynthia, that destroyed part of the west coast and cost live to 50 persons. We saw that in Berlin for 2 days when suddenly, after a few days of snow melting, we lived a time wind and snow for hours. I noticed that each storm has a name and the question is now : Why storms are called Günter, Klaus or Lothar... ? Before, to make a long story short, a storm was called according to day saint, locality which it had demolished or the humor of the meteorologists. Since the fifties, storms and cyclones are named according to preestablished lists of first names (but also names of flowers, trees, birds), established by country committees which composition varies according to the concerned region, and validated by the world meteorological Organization of United Nations. National cyclone center of Miami has so six lists of first names. When lists are finished, we take the same and we start from all over again. Except for the particularly murderous storms: their names are then eliminated of the list, in order to not meet a second Katrina or a Mitch junior.. For the North of the Atlantic - and thus storms, but also important anticyclones which get Europe - it is the Institute of meteorology in Berlin that takes care of it since 1954. So a tendency for the Germanic consonances: Klaus (in January, 2009), Lothar (in December, 1999)... Lists follow the alphabet, by alternating first names male / female, parity obliges: before Xynthia there was harmless Günter, Isidor or Wera. Later will come Yve and Zana. In 2004, the students of the institute have the idea to suggest to the public to adopt a storm by baptizing it. Or how to make sensitive the opinion about meteorology while financing the programs of research and meteo observations. Because to baptize a storm of the North Atlantic has a price: 199 euro for a depression, 299 euro for an anticyclone, which are also named. And so we owe the choice of Xynthia to Wolfgang Schütte. The happy (or unfortunate) godfather gained the right to baptize his storm without paying out anything via a lottery organized by a web site dedicated to the climate. The first names have to answer certain criteria: to be registered on the register of the "acceptable" first names, no hyphen, no special signs... Which does not prevent any curiosities and a singular preference for the first names, let's say, old fashioned, at least for a French ear. If a letter is not attributed, it is auctioning on e-bay. For those who would like to let something to climatic posterity, remain to name some storms beginning by Q, W, X and Z. Knowing that, as It is good to know reading the site of the Institute, " you will have no influence on the climate ".