Hurricane season is officially upon us. While the Ozarks have managed to stay clear of the immense damage and destruction these powerful storms can cause, others haven’t been as fortunate. 

AccuWeather’s preliminary estimates for the total damages caused by last week’s Tropical Storm Hilary are to be between $7-9 Billion.  Furthermore, when constructing this article, an additional cyclone, Idalia, is strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico and posturing to wreak havoc along Florida’s West Coast and Panhandle. 

Many questions are formed when it comes to these destructive storms but the most common I hear are centered around the naming of Hurricanes. How are Hurricanes named? Do Hurricane names get reused? Will my name ever be used?

Naming of Hurricanes 

Before a storm becomes a hurricane, it starts off as a tropical depression. Once this tropical system achieves sustained winds of 39 mph, it is elevated to a tropical storm and assigned a unique name.

In 1953, the United States started using female names for storm identification. Assigning distinctive names cut down on confusion and allowed for clear communication when discussing these tropical storms. 

It wasn’t until 26 years later in 1979, that male names were finally included in the list for storm identification. Since then, the World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee has made a push to include a diverse pool of ethnic male and female names.  

List of Hurricane Names

Here’s the official list of names for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic for this year. We are currently on I for Idalia. This means the next tropical cyclone will be named Jose.  

This list of names will be reused in 2029 with one exception. Infamous hurricanes can have their name “retired” to never be used again. Katrina, Matthew, Andrew, Ida, Ian, and Irma are a handful to achieve this status. 

You can check out the list of current names here to see if your name is in the pool: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml