The World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee has recently decided to retire the names of four storms from the past two seasons: Dorian from 2019, and Laura, Eta and Iota from 2020. These names will no longer be available from the six-year rotating lists of Atlantic tropical cyclone names because of the death and destruction they caused, a standard practice. According to the WMO, this is done because future use of the name would be insensitive. It is then replaced by a new name of the same letter.

Any country may request that the name of a hurricane be “retired,” which is then considered by the aforementioned committee. It is interesting to note that Isaias, which did a number on us locally with severe wind damage, was not retired.

Going forward, the Committee also decided that the Greek alphabet will no longer be used, citing the possibility of distraction and confusion when issuing storm information. In its place, a supplemental list of names A-Z (excluding Q, U, X, Y,& Z) will be used once the original list is exhausted. This has only happened twice on record, first in 2005 and then again last year.

Here are the names for the Atlantic Ocean this year: