List of retired Atlantic hurricane names

This is a list of retired Atlantic hurricane names. Hurricane names are retired by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a meeting in March, April, or May of each year. Those hurricanes that have their names retired tend to be exceptionally destructive storms that often become household names in the regions they affected. The process of retiring Atlantic hurricane names indefinitely officially began in 1969.^[1] Prior to 1969, significant storm names were retired for ten years. Since 1953, an average of one storm name has been retired for each season, though many seasons (most recently 2009) have had no storm names retired, and after the 2005 season, five names were retired. Storm names are retired following a request made at the spring WMO meeting by one or more of the countries affected by a hurricane.

General information

Theoretically, a hurricane or tropical storm of any strength can have its name retired; retirement is based entirely on the level of damage caused by a storm. However, until 1972, no Category 1 hurricane had its name retired, and no named tropical storm had its name retired until 2001.^[2] This is at least partially due to the fact that weaker storms tend to cause less damage,^[3] and the few weak storms that have had their names retired caused most of their destruction through heavy rainfall rather than winds, such as Hurricane Stan in 2005.^[4][2]

Since 1953, 75 storms have had their names retired. Of these, two (Carol and Edna) were reused after the storm for which they were retired but were later retroactively retired, and two others (Hilda and Janet) were included on later lists of storm names but were not reused before being retroactively retired. Historical records are unclear on the status of Gracie from the 1959 season. The official National Hurricane Center website does not report Gracie as a retired name,^[2] but it is widely referred to as retired, including by other official sources.^[5]

If all the names on a season's normal list are used up, storms are then named after the letters of the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.) Unlike the normal names, these cannot be retired. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "At present there are no plans to retire letters of the Greek alphabet from the list, but if a very bad hurricane occurs with a Greek letter name, this may have to be revised."^[6]

Since 1953, the following seasons have had no names retired from that season: 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2006 and 2009.^[2]

Lists of retired names

Listed by intensity

This lists all retired hurricanes by their peak intensity, which is determined by measurements of the minimum central pressure.

While the intensity of tropical cyclones is measured solely by central pressure, wind speeds are also estimated; the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is used in the Atlantic basin to rank hurricanes according to their strongest 1-minute sustained winds. While most hurricanes do not make landfall at their peak intensity, they are often referred to by their strongest Saffir-Simpson Category rather than by their landfall Category.

Of the storms in the Atlantic whose names have been retired, one peaked as a tropical storm, five peaked as Category 1 hurricanes, four peaked as Category 2 hurricanes, thirteen peaked as Category 3 hurricanes, thirty-two peaked as Category 4 hurricanes and twenty peaked as Category 5 hurricanes. Many storms of high intensities have not had their names retired because they did not make landfall (such as Hurricane Karl), because they made landfall in an area where they could do very little damage (such as Hurricane Bret), because they weakened dramatically before making landfall (such as Hurricane Ethel), or because no request for retirement was made (such as Hurricane Emily). However, since the introduction of name retirement, only four Category 5 hurricanes have not had their names retired.

Of the storms listed below, one, Hurricane Cesar, reached its peak strength after crossing into the Pacific Ocean and being renamed Hurricane Douglas. As only the name Cesar was from the Atlantic naming lists and only Cesar was retired, its peak strength as Cesar is listed. Tropical Storm Allison remains the only sub-Hurricane strength tropical cyclone to have its name retired. This is based on the devastating flood and storm surge damage done to the Houston, Texas area when Allison hit in June, 2001. No other Tropical Storm's name (that did not go on to become a hurricane) has ever been retired.

Listed by total damages

This lists all retired Atlantic hurricanes by their total damages (in 2012 USD).

Hurricane names are generally retired for one of two reasons, either because they were particularly damaging or particularly deadly (a small number of retired storms were both). Because of ever-increasing levels of development along the coastlines of the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, more recent storms tend to be more damaging than older storms even when inflation is taken into account.

Some data may be incomplete and account for damages in only one location while the storm affected several. This is especially true for older hurricanes. Calculation of modern-day damage amounts is done using the Consumer Price Index;^[7] values are approximate so an exact ordering is generally not possible.

Listed by death toll

This lists all retired Atlantic hurricanes by the number of direct deaths they caused.

Hurricane names are generally retired for one of two reasons, either because they were particularly damaging or particularly deadly. While many damaging storms caused little loss of life, most deadly storms also caused heavy damage.

Most storms cause fatalities not by their high winds but rather through flooding - either storm surge or inland flooding due to rainfall. Storm surge has the highest potential for deaths; with modern forecasting, warning, and evacuation storm surge deaths can be almost eliminated, but the potential is still very high for catastrophe in places where warning systems are not in place or if warnings are ignored. Inland flooding, by contrast, is unpredictable because it depends heavily on a hurricane's interaction with the terrain and with other nearby weather systems. Two retired hurricanes, Hurricane Elena (1985) and Hurricane Paloma (2008) did not cause any direct deaths, rather they caused indirect deaths Elena (4) and Paloma (1) therefore, they are not included in this list.

Because of uncertainty in the death toll, an exact ordering of storms is not always possible.

Landfalls

Landfall of a tropical cyclone is defined as the moving of the center of the eye over land. Damages from a tropical cyclone are usually greatest where it makes landfall.

In the below list, the retired hurricanes are listed in chronological order with their landfall locations listed under columns designating their strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale at the time of landfall. Within a cell, landfalls are listed in chronological order. Two retired hurricanes, Hurricane Klaus and Hurricane Fabian, never made landfall anywhere at any intensity. They are omitted from this list. Some retired systems also made landfall as tropical depressions, but depressions were not reliably tracked until the 1990s and so their landfalls are omitted as well.

Fabian (2003) and Klaus (1990) are not on the above list because neither made landfall. Rather, they made direct hits on land, Fabian on Bermuda, and Klaus on Barbuda.

Footnotes

See also

• List of Atlantic hurricanes
• List of historic tropical cyclone names
• List of retired tropical cyclone names
  • List of retired Pacific hurricane names
  • List of retired Pacific typhoon names
  • List of retired Philippine typhoon names
• List of tropical cyclones
• Category:Retired Atlantic hurricanes

References

External links

• National Hurricane Center's Post-Season Reports
• NHC's list of deadliest hurricanes
• NHC's list of US-striking hurricanes
• Unisys Weather archives for the Atlantic
• History of Atlantic Hurricane Names