Let's break it down: ees-ah-EE-ahs. That's how you pronouce the ninth named tropical storm of the year.

Once you sound out its four syllables, Isaias isn't too hard to pronounce, even if you're not familiar with the Spanish language. If you do speak Spanish, you've probably been cringing while listening to all the mispronunciations of the storm in the past few days.

WFTV Meteorologist Irene Sans tweeted a video pronouncing it:

Here you go! I got y’all! 🤜🤛@sbowerswx @wxbrad https://t.co/Ca27uLAc3A pic.twitter.com/WzrruUnkVd

— Irene Sans (@IreneSans) July 26, 2020

The Atlantic Basin Storm Name Pronunciations guide also can help you sound out the storm's pronunciation as well as all the predicted tropical storms until 2025. Some of the storms on the guide are easier to say, such as Walter, expected to developed in 2022, and Sam, expected to developed next year. The guide comes in handy with storms like 2025 storm Humberto, pronounced oom-BAIR-toh, and the 2023 storm, Idalia, which is pronounced ee-DAL-ya.

According to the National Huricane Center, Atlantic tropical storms have been named since 1953 when the United States abandoned a confusing two-year-old plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) when a new, international phonetic alphabet was introduced. That year, the United States began using female names for storms.

The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

The lists of storm names originated at the National Hurricane Center, and they're now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorologoical Organization (WMO). They're used in rotation and recycled every six years, i.e., the 2019 list will be used again in 2025. The only time that there is a change in the list is 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. If that occurs, then at an annual WMO committee meeting, the offending name is removed from the list and another name is selected to replace it. Several names have been retired since the lists were created. 

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet.

The National Weather Service (NWS) and OCN want you to have the latest, most accurate information on Isaias to keep you informed and safe. Go to the NOAA info page for the most current forecasted weather conditions, evacuation and shelter information, and available resources to help keep you safe. NWS offices will be using #Isaias on Twitter throughout the event.

Have you had trouble pronouncing Isaias? Tell us in the comments!