Geneva, Switzerland - The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Hurricane Committee has retired four hurricane names and announces that they will no longer use the Greek alphabet moving forward.
Changes to the WMO's naming convention came following the Hurricane Committee's virtual session that reviewed the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic season and fine-tuned preparations for 2021.
The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season kicked off with an early and rapid start after a record nine named storms formed from May through July. The season also ended later and brought two major hurricanes in November, which is a first, especially when the season is normally winding down.
The season was also so active that forecasters exhausted the WMO's 21-name list and had to switch to using the Greek alphabet, which was only done once before in the 2005 Atlantic season; the same season that spawned Hurricane Katrina.
"The Hurricane Committee's work is critical to keep our nations coordinated well before the next storm threatens", said Ken Graham, Hurricane Committee Chair and National Hurricane Center Director. "Hurricanes don't care about international boundaries. We all face similar dangers from tropical systems. Impacts from a single storm can affect multiple countries, so it is critical we have a plan, coordinate our efforts, and share challenges and best practices."
Since 1953—which is when storms began to be named under the current system—93 storm names have been retired from the Atlantic Basin's list, which repeats every six years. Names are retired if the storm proves to be deadly or costly.
Now joining the list of retired names are Dorian, a category 5 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage in the Bahamas; Laura, a powerful category 4 hurricane that brought a devastating storm surge of at least 17 feet to the Gulf Coast, and Eta and Iota: two hurricanes that struck the same part of the Nicaraguan coast less than two weeks apart.
Officials also stated that the 2020 season showed that there were a number of shortcomings in using the Greek alphabet, therefore it will not be used in future. According to the Hurricane Committee, there can be too much focus on the use of Greek alphabet names and not the actual impacts from the storm. There was also confusion with some Greek names when they were translated into other languages.
Additionally, the impacts of Eta and Iota were severe enough to be retired by committee members. There is also no formal plan for retiring Greek names, so the future use of those names was deemed inappropriate by officials.
In lieu of the Greek alphabet, Hurricane Committee members agreed to create a supplemental list of names A-Z—which will still exclude Q, U, X, Y, and Z names as those are still not common enough or easily understood in local languages to be included.
The official names for the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season are as follows: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Julian, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda
The supplemental list will include the following names: Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath, Isla, Jacobus, Kenzie, Lucio, Makayla, Nola, Orlanda, Pax, Ronin, Sophie, Tayshaun, Viviana, and Will.
