Irish Examiner view: Storm swirling over number of hurricanes

Governments all over the world need to do much more, and faster, to keep climate change at the top of the agenda

Hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall battered several islands off the western coast of Greece on Friday. Picture: Nikiforos Stamenis/AP

The Atlantic hurricane season has been so active this year that meteorologists have almost exhausted the list of names used to track tropical storms. This week, five named storms (Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, and Vicky) meant forecasters were left with just one entry, Wilfred, on its 21-name list.

They may now turn to the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, but the naming shortfall has underlined the far more disquieting fact that this season’s hurricanes, now at 20, far outnumber the seasonal average of 11 storms.