Late Season Hurricane "Otto" Forms in the Atlantic; Might Become "Tina"

FOX 32 NEWS - On Tuesday evening, November 22nd, a late season hurricane formed in the southern Caribbean near Panama and Costa Rica.

"Otto" has 75 mph winds and is headed west with a slight northwest movement. The hurricane is expected to take a rare track across the Central America isthmus near Nicaragua and Costa Rica on Thursday.

Each tropical basin or region on the globe has its own set of tropical cyclone names. The Atlantic names are different from the eastern Pacific names, which in turn are different from the central Pacific names. In the case of hurricane "Otto," there would be a name change when it reaches the Pacific Ocean as a tropical storm. "Otto" will then become "Tina," which is the next name on the Pacific basin list for 2016.

This will be the 15th named storm in the Atlantic this season and the 20th named storm in the Pacific. There are no names beginning with the letter Q, U, X, Y or Z. The lists are created by the World Meteorological Organization and they rotate every 6 years. The names on this year’s list will return again in 2022. If a storm is highly destructive or deadly, its name is typically retired like Katrina or Sandy.

Tropical season in both the Atlantic and Pacific ends on November 30th. However, records show there have been a handful of tropical systems that formed after that date.