The Hurricane Watch Net

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.

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 seventh 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.

Retired Atlantic Names by Year

			1954 Carol Edna Hazel	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	2019	2020 Laura Eta Iota
2021 Ida	2022 Fiona Ian	2023	2024 Beryl Helene Milton	2024

Alphabetical List of Retired Atlantic Names

Agnes		1972
Alicia		1983
Allen		1980
Allison		2001
Andrew		1992
Anita		1977
Audrey		1957
Beryl		2024
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
Helene		2024
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
Milton		2024
Mitch		1998
Nate		2017
Noel		2007
Opal		1995
Otto		2016
Paloma		2008
Rita		2005
Roxanne		1995
Sandy		2012
Stan		2005
Tomas		2010
Wilma		2005

Greek Alphabet

In the event that more than twenty-one named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet. This naming convention has been established by the World Meteorological Organization Tropical Cyclone Programme.

Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Zeta
Eta
Theta
Iota
Kappa
Lambda
Mu
Nu
Xi
Omicron
Pi
Rho
Sigma
Tau
Upsilon
Phi
Chi
Psi
Omega