To move things on, the answer is in the spoiler.
Spoiler:
"Storm" by George R . Stewart - the storm in the book (published by Random House in 1941) was named Maria (which was pronounced as Mariah at the time).
A link to goodreads with the information - His 1941 novel Storm, featuring as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria, prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms and inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to write the song "They Call the Wind Maria" for their 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." Storm was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of ABC's Disneyland.
And a link to the
Washington Post with some more... - 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.
Someone want to start the next question?