THAT'S LIFE: Here's to hoping we don't get to hear from Walter

What do Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Igor, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Thomas, Virginie and Walter have in common?

If you guessed they are the names for the 2010 Atlantic Hurricanes, you win a gold star. This article serves as your official notice to begin storing your water, toothbrush and important papers in a safe location: The 2010 Hurricane Season is just 20 days away.

According to the National Hurricane Center, at www.nhc.noaa.gov, the names are chosen by an international committee, and it was 1979 before men were added to this particular type of tropical natural disasters.

Six lists of names are used in rotation. Thus, the 2009 list will be used again in 2015. And just what does it take to be on the Retired Hurricane Name list?

If a storm is "so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity," it is mothballed and left off the list and in the history books.

I guess we all glean some comfort from knowing there can never again be a Hugo, Andrew or Katrina. Also, another tidbit to remember, just in case we do hear from Walter this year, if there are more than 21 named tropical systems, depressions, storms, or full-scale hurricanes in the Atlantic basin in a season, the other names come from the Greek alphabet, beginning, of course, with Alpha and going to Omega.

Oh, and, if a storm forms in the off-season, it takes the next name in the list on the current calendar date. So, if a tropical cyclone forms on Dec. 28, it would take the name from the previous season's list of names. But, if a storm forms in February, it would be named from the subsequent season's list of names. So there you have it: More than you ever wanted to know about the naming of tropical systems.

So, what's on tap for our 2010 season?

Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray, lead meteorologists and storm prognosticators with Colorado State University's Tropical Meteorology Project, give the following outlook: Windy with an elevated chance of rain. Sorry, that was my prediction.

Here's theirs: "We continue to foresee above-average activity ... We have increased our seasonal forecast ... due to a combination of anomalous warming of Atlantic tropical sea surface temperatures and a more confident view that the current El Niño will weaken."

And they believe there will be an "above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall."

Batten down the hatches and get ready. The next six months are primed for possible, probable, turbulent weather.

Klotzbach and Gray predict eight hurricanes for the 2010 June to November season, with four expected to advance to Category 3 status.

Category 3 storms have winds of at least 111 mph, sustained. In all, they say they expect 15 named storms, so maybe we won't get to meet Walter at all.

But then it all takes one ill-wind from Alex, and we're toast.