Forecasting tropical cyclones is tough enough, but naming a storm can be difficult in itself.
Below you will notice the path Issac took from the Gulf of Mexico and into the US.
Note how the remnants of the center of Isaac moved into areas in Indiana and swirled towards Kentucky. If Isaac has enough push back into the Atlantic or Gulf and regained tropical characteristics, then we would be talking about a headline stealer....again. Something more interesting actually took place. While Isaac's main circulation was around the Mid-West, a secondary circulation took shape over Mississippi and Alabama. In other words, a piece of Isaac broke off and became its own form.
As of this afternoon, that piece of energy is moving south towards the Gulf coast.
Yes, the NHC has their eyes on this closely as tropical formation is possible. Additionally, if this were to become a tropical storm, Isaac's name would not be used, but rather the next name which has not been used, Nadine. Due to the fact that this was not the main circulation, but rather a new (secondary) circulation that parted from the parent storm, this is considered to be separate.
On the other hand, there have been storms which reformed while keeping the same name. Category 5 Hurricane Ivan from 2004 comes to mind. Following landfall in Alabama, Ivan traveled though the Appalachians, weakened, and took a course back into the Atlantic Ocean. Despite losing its tropical character and becoming a remnant low, Ivan took a U-Turn back to Florida.
With another dip into the Gulf of Mexico, this remnant low reformed, regained a tropical identity and...what do you know....Ivan was back. Because the SAME parent circulation moved back over water and redeveloped, Ivan kept its name.
Ivan is a name that will be remembered for a long time as a devastating meteorological phenomenon, but how about storms that change names? So far we have talked about a new storm forming off an old one and a very long lived rejuvenated system, but storms that move into a new ocean basin can change names.
If a storm happen to move from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic name would not stand. It would switch to a name on the Pacific list. A recent example of this would be from this year's Hurricane Season Ernesto.
Ernesto plowed though the Caribbean and ripped up in the tall mountains of Mexico. Yet, Enresto's remnant circulation spiraled into the Pacific Ocean. With the right meteorological ingredients, this remnant low became a tropical storm again. This time Ernesto was in a different ocean basin, the Western Pacific. Therefore, this storm was labeled Hector.
This is only the 11th time this has happened on record. It all in a name......
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