What’s in a hurricane name?

 

Photo Credit: NWS-Birmingham

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially gets underway on June 1.  The list of names for the season has already been released.

The list of hurricane names is on a six-year cycle that is reused every sixth year. For example, this season's list was last used in 2019 and is the same list minus any names that were retired. Tropical storm and hurricane names are "retired" by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for being particularly damaging or deadly.

The name "Dorian” was retired after the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season following its destructive and deadly trek across the Bahamas. It was replaced with the name “Dexter” for the 2025 season. Last season was a particularly destructive one that saw three names retired: “Beryl,” “Helene,” and “Milton.”  Those names were replaced with “Brianna,” “Holly,” and “Miguel” for when the 2024 list is used again in 2030.

Starting in 1953, tropical storms and hurricanes were given female names. That changed in 1979 when men’s names were added. Tropical systems started getting names, originally, to minimize confusion if more than two active storms occur concurrently.

One of the more frequently used names is "Chris," which has been used every six years since 1982. “Chris” has never been a very destructive or deadly storm, so it's been reused whenever it's turn in the rotation comes again. The most intense version of "Chris" came in 2012 when it became a Category 2 storm over the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 105 mph. Last season, “Chris” was a short-lived and weak tropical storm that was named shortly before its landfall in Mexico.

An average Atlantic hurricane season features 14 named storms, of which 7 become hurricanes with 3 "major" hurricanes - Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with sustained winds of at least 111 mph. The first named storm of 2025 will be “Andrea.”