6 days ago
Gulf Of What? A note from StormTracker 59 on hurricane season
GHENT, WV (WVNS) — President Donald Trump signed executive order #14172, 'Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness', on February 9th, 2025, where the Gulf of Mexico was renamed to the Gulf of America.
The formally named Gulf of Mexico received its name from early European explorers that had to cross the body of water to arrive in Mexico1. Since the late 1600's, the name just stuck. Mexico, at the time, covered present day Mexico and several state that would become the United States of America including Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, portions of Colorado, and Wyoming. Spain controlled Gulf waters along Florida and France held control of much of the waters along Louisiana.
For more than 400 years the name 'Gulf of Mexico' survived early colonization, the Louisiana Purchase in 18032, Texas independence in 18393, Texas statehood in 18454, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 18485, and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase6 where Mexico and the U.S., traded control over what is now the United States of America. Not to mention the internal changes in colonial Mexico from Spanish control. The Gulf of Mexico has been a long standing name for generations of citizens of several counties that border it and around the world.
With recent changes from the February 2025 executive order, however, some contention has arose from the move bringing politics to a body of water's name that is highly important to the Atlantic Hurricane Season. Making it a name that will come up quite a bit from June to November during the 2025 hurricane season.
For the most part, meteorologists have always shortened the name 'Gulf of Mexico', now 'Gulf of America', to simply 'The Gulf', as it is a body of water most audiences are familiar with, know their directional relationship to it, and where to find it on a weather map. If a hurricane is in the Gulf, like Helene from 2024, most of us know where to look. But with so much political turmoil over the recent changes from President Trump, meteorologist have found themselves under fire for following this practice as if it were a slight towards the President's order. It is not. Why spend 30 seconds during a severe weather event talking about where a location is when most already know where you are talking about?
For your StormTracker 59 team, our main concern when it comes to natural disasters is always the safety and wellbeing of our community, first. Breaking in for tornado coverage, Facebook lives during major winter storms, or rising to the challenges in the community after historic flooding. We care more about our community's weather concerns than what the political world thinks about us. We are scientists, not political commentators you might find on 24-hour news networks.
With that said, the Gulf of America the name of the body of water that runs along the western side of Florida, southern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by executive order and recognized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whom we rely on throughout the year, especially during hurricane season. NOAA has already started issuing communications on alerts and discussions using the new name and as a result, when applicable to our forecast discussions, we will do the same. Again, our focus isn't on the name of the body of water the deadly CAT 4 hurricane comes from, but what impacts it will have to you when it does.
However, after over 400 years of history, multiple years of combined education between our meteorologist during a time when the name was different, new things take time to adjust too and mistakes will be made. We may slip and refer to 'the Gulf' as the Gulf of Mexico. We will strive to call it what it is, the Gulf of America, but when we do or don't we are not jumping into the political world. We leave policy and politics where they belong, in the hands of elected officials. We let them answer for their choices as we do our best to follow those choices.
Our hope, as the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season gets underway, is that it is a calm year that falls short of current forecasts and we don't have to see headlines like 'death toll rises in wake of another hurricane'. It is also our hope to continue to provide the best coverage of impactful weather events as we've always have without politics getting in the way of vital information that can keep you safe. Gulf of America or Gulf of Mexico, when hurricanes come, it won't matter to us, or you, when we're left picking up the pieces in the aftermath.
We'll keep politics out of our weather forecasts as we have enough to deal with from Mother Nature than fighting political ideologies or policy. Our focus will always be on the weather and how it will impact you. That, at the end of the day, is all we care about.
1) Britannica – Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America: National Office of the Historian – Louisiana Purchase 1803: & 4) Texas State Historical Society – The Texas Revolution: Key Events and Impact: National Archives – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848): National Office of the Historian – Gadsden Purchase, 1853–1854:
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