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Tropical Cyclone Naming History and Retired Names


Reason to Name Hurricanes

Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older, more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. For example, one hurricane can be moving slowly westward in the Gulf of Mexico, while at exactly the same time another hurricane can be moving rapidly northward along the Atlantic coast. In the past, confusion and false rumors have arisen when storm advisories broadcast from radio stations were mistaken for warnings concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.

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History of Hurricane Names

For several hundred years many hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. Ivan R. Tannehill describes in his book "Hurricanes" the major tropical storms of recorded history and mentions many hurricanes named after saints. For example, there was "Hurricane Santa Ana" which struck Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825, and "San Felipe" (the first) and "San Felipe" (the second) which hit Puerto Rico on September 13 in both 1876 and 1928.

Tannehill also tells of Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist who began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century.

An early example of the use of a woman's name for a storm was in the novel "Storm" by George R. Stewart, published by Random House in 1941, and since filmed by Walt Disney. During World War II this practice became widespread in weather map discussions among forecasters, especially Army and Navy meteorologists who plotted the movements of storms over the wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1953, 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.

Retired Hurricane Names Since 1954

The NHC does not control the naming of tropical storms. Instead a strict procedure has been established by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

For Atlantic hurricanes, there is a list of names for each of six years. In other words, one list is repeated every sixth year. The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

There is an exception to the retirement rule, however. Before 1979, when the first permanent six-year storm name list began, some storm names were simply not used anymore. For example, in 1966, "Fern" was substituted for "Frieda," and no reason was cited.

Below is a list of retired names for the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. There are, however, a great number of destructive storms not included on this list because they occurred before the hurricane naming convention was established in 1950.

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Retired Atlantic Names by Year

Retired Atlantic Names by Year
  1954
Carol
Hazel
Edna
1955
Connie
Diane
Ione
Janet
1956  1957
Audrey
1958  1959  1960
Donna
1961
Carla
Hattie
1962  1963
Flora
1964
Cleo
Dora
Hilda
1965
Betsy
1966
Inez
1967
Beulah
1968
1969
Camille
1970
Celia
1971 
1972
Agnes
1973  1974
Carmen
Fifi
1975
Eloise
1976  1977
Anita
1978
Greta
1979
David
Frederic
1980
Allen
1981 
1982  1983
Alicia
1984  1985
Elena
Gloria
1986  1987  1988
Gilbert
Joan
1989
Hugo
1990
Diana
Klaus
1991
Bob
1992
Andrew
1993  1994  1995
Luis
Marilyn
Opal
Roxanne
1996
Cesar
Fran
Hortense
1997  1998
Georges
Mitch
1999
Floyd
Lenny
2000
Keith
2001
Allison
Iris
Michelle
2002
Isidore
Lili
2003
Fabian
Isabel
Juan
2004
Charley
Frances
Ivan
Jeanne
2005
Dennis
Katrina
Rita
Stan
Wilma
2006  2007
Dean
Felix
Noel
2008
Gustav
Ike
Paloma
2009
2010
Igor
Tomas
2011
Irene
2012
Sandy
2013
Ingrid
2014  2015
Erika
Joaquin
2016
Matthew
Otto
2017
Harvey
Irma
Maria
Nate
2018
Florence
Michael
2019
Dorian
2020
Laura
Eta
Iota
2021
Ida
2022
Fiona
Ian
 

Alphabetical List of Retired Atlantic Names

Agnes  1972
Alicia  1983
Allen  1980
Allison  2001
Andrew  1992
Anita  1977
Audrey  1957
Betsy  1965
Beulah  1967
Bob  1991
Camille  1969
Carla  1961
Carmen  1974
Carol  1954
Celia  1970
Cesar  1996
Charley  2004
Cleo  1964
Connie  1955
David  1979
Dean  2007
Dennis  2005
Diana  1990
Diane  1955
Donna  1960
Dora  1964
Dorian  2019
Edna  1954
Elena  1985
Eloise  1975
Erika  2015
Eta  2020
Fabian  2003
Felix  2007
Fifi  1974
Fiona  2022
Flora  1963
Florence  2018
Floyd  1999
Fran  1996
Frances  2004
Frederic  1979
Georges  1998
Gilbert  1988
Gloria  1985
Greta  1978
Gustav  2008
Harvey  2017
Hattie  1961
Hazel  1954
Hilda  1964
Hortense  1996
Hugo  1989
Ian  2022
Ida  2021
Igor  2010
Ike  2008
Inez  1966
Ingrid  2013
Ione  1955
Iota  2020
Irene  2011
Iris  2001
Irma  2017
Isabel  2003
Isidore  2002
Ivan  2004
Janet  1955
Jeanne  2004
Joan  1988
Joaquin  2015
Juan  2003
Katrina  2005
Keith  2000
Klaus  1990
Laura  2020
Lenny  1999
Lili  2002
Luis  1995
Maria  2017
Marilyn  1995
Matthew  2016
Michael  2018
Michelle  2001
Mitch  1998
Nate  2017
Noel  2007
Opal  1995
Otto  2016
Paloma  2008
Rita  2005
Roxanne  1995
Sandy  2012
Stan  2005
Tomas  2010
Wilma  2005

Retired Central and Eastern North Pacific Names by Year

Retired Central and Eastern North Pacific Names by Year
  1965
Hazel
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
Adele
1971 
1972
1973  1974
1975
1976  1977
1978
Fico
1979
1980
1981 
1982
Iwa
1983
1984  1985
1986  1987
Knut
1988
Iva
1989
1990
1991
Fefa
1992
Iniki
1993  1994  1995
Ismael
1996
1997
Pauline
Paka
1998
1999
2000
2001
Adolph
2002
Kenna
2003
2004
Isis
2005
2006
Ioke
2007
2008
Alma
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Manuel
2014
Odile
2015
Patricia
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
 

Alphabetical List of Retired Central and Eastern North Pacific Names

Adele  1970
Adolph  2001
Alma  2008
Fefa  1991
Fico  1978
Hazel  1965
Ioke  2006
Isis  2004
Ismael  1995
Iniki  1992
Iva  1988
Iwa  1982
Kenna  2002
Knut  1987
Manuel  2013
Odile  2014
Paka  1997
Patricia  2015
Pauline  1997

Alternate Name List

In the event that more than twenty-one named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, or more than twenty-four named tropical cyclones in the eastern North Pacific basin, any additional storms will take names from an alternate list of names approved by the WMO for each basin.  This naming convention has been established by the World Meteorological Organization Tropical Cyclone Programme.

Atlantic Basin Eastern North Pacific Basin
Adria
Braylen
Caridad
Deshawn
Emery
Foster
Gemma
Heath
Isla
Jacobus
Kenzie
Lucio
Makayla
Nolan
Orlanda
Pax
Ronin
Sophie
Tayshaun
Viviana
Will
Aidan
Bruna
Carmelo
Daniella
Esteban
Flor
Gerardo
Hedda
Izzy
Jacinta
Kenito
Luna
Marina
Nancy
Ovidio
Pia
Rey
Skylar
Teo
Violeta
Wilfredo
Xinia
Yariel
Zoe