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Adopt a Vortex
Wed May 12, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
What do you give the person who has everything? How about an anticyclone? Hi, I'm
Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Here's your chance to see your name up in lights -- at least on a German weather map.
The Free University of Berlin now sells naming rights to each of the highs and lows
that scoot across its part of the world. It started back in 1954, when the idea of naming
hurricanes was just catching on. The meteorologists in Berlin went a step further: they
started naming all of the high and low pressure centers crossing the map. The names
weren't used outside of Berlin until the 1990s, when they started showing up in
German media.
Last year, the university's meteorology budget got slashed, and that's when the
students decided to offer naming rights for the highs and lows. At first the traffic was
slow, but now the names are going like hotcakes. If you go to the department's Web
page, you can find any unassigned letter of the alphabet, stake your claim, and name
any name you like -- as long as it's one word and not a commercial product.
It costs about 230 dollars for a low, but high pressure goes for about 350 dollars a
pop. You get a birth certificate and a weather map with your namesake on it. Since
each year brings over 100 highs and lows, the alphabet gets used several times over
-- unlike hurricane season. So whether it's Angela, Alfred, Zeigfried or Zelda, there just
might be a vortex in Germany with your name on it.
Thanks to Bob Henson for today's story. The Weather Notebook is a production of the
Mount Washington Observatory, at www.mountwashington.org. We are supported by
Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
German Meteorological Institute site
http://www.wetterpate.de
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