The World Meteorological Organization decides the names of hurricanes and tropical storms. According to Wikipedia, there are six alphabetic lists of names. One list is used each year, which usually means each name gets reused every six years.
In 1955, the United States Weather Bureau started retiring storm names of significant hurricanes. On average, one Atlantic storm name is retired every year.
With storms getting stronger every year, it’s highly likely we’ll see more and more storm names being retired. Make sure you’re ready for the next storm. Always have your emergency supplies on hand and ready to go, and don’t forget to protect your home too! The best way to protect your home is with hurricane impact windows, doors, and hurricane shutters.
Unfortunately, some of you that are reading this blog will remember a few of the storms listed below. Here are the names of storms that were retired since 2000:
Keith, Category 4, 2000
Allison, Tropical Storm, 2001
Iris, Category 4, 2001
Michelle, Category 4, 2001
Isidore, Category 3, 2002
Lili, Category 4, 2002
Fabian, Category 4, 2003
Isabel, Category 5, 2003
Juan, Category 2, 2003
Charley, Category 4, 2004
Frances, Category 4, 2004
Ivan, Category 5, 2004
Jeanne, Category 4, 2004
Dennis, Category 4, 2005
Katrina, Category 5, 2005
Rita, Category 5, 2005
Stan, Category 1, 2005
Wilma, Category 5, 2005
Dean, Category 5, 2007
Felix, Category 5, 2007
Noel, Category 1, 2007
Gustav, Category 4, 2008
Ike, Category 4, 2008
Paloma, Category 4, 2008
Igor, Category 4, 2010
Tomas, Category 2, 2010
Irene, Category 3, 2011
Sandy, Category 3, 2012
Ingrid, Category 1, 2013
Erika, Tropical Storm, 2015
Joaquin, Category 4, 2015
Matthew, Category 5, 2016
Otto, Category 3, 2016
Harvey, Category 4, 2017
Irma, Category 5, 2017
Maria, Category 5, 2017
Nate, Category 1, 2017
