Tropical storms designated with the names Don and Hillary may be in play at the same time over the next days and weeks.
A new Atlantic tropical storm named Don is causing all kinds of uproar, but mostly the social media kind as people make jokes about President Donald Trump. Another tropical storm forming in the Pacific will get the name Hillary, according to The Washington Post, which has fueled even more Twitter hijinks.
Tropical Storm Don is not expected to be particularly strong. The National Hurricane Center called the storm “small” and “not particularly well organized,” according to The Associated Press.
Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center assured the public the name had nothing to do with politics.
“I guarantee you that it has no connection to Donald Trump,” he told the AP. Mayfield was the chairperson of the committee that added the name Don to the list to replace Dennis, which was retired in 2005. Don was first used in 2011.
The NOAA typically only retires names after a storm that causes a lot of damage and destruction. The names Andrew, Katrina, and Sandy were all retired previously.
Another storm may form in the Pacific Ocean over the next 48 hours, forecasters say. If it does, it will be named Hillary, and both storms will have a chance of existing at the same time, albeit oceans apart, like their namesakes.
Twitter, of course, loved the idea of tropical storms named Don and Hillary and couldn’t wait to point out the irony and significance of one or both.