Hurricane season in the Atlantic kicked off Thursday, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects there to be 12 to 17 named storms by the time it wraps up in November.
Once storms reach wind speeds of 39 miles per hour, they are considered tropical storms and they are named. This year, extreme weather headlines could feature names such as Emily, Jose, Margot and Vince.
Here is the full list of potential names for 2023 season storms:
· Arlene
· Bret
· Cindy
· Don
· Emily
· Franklin
· Gert
· Harold
· Idalia
· Jose
· Katia
· Lee
· Margot
· Nigel
· Ophelia
· Philippe
· Rina
· Sean
· Tammy
· Vince
· Whitney
According to the NOAA, the practice of naming tropical storms and hurricanes dates back several hundred years to a tradition of naming storms based on saint’s days.
“For example, there was ‘Hurricane Santa Ana’ which struck Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825, and ‘San Felipe’ (the first) and ‘San Felipe’ (the second) which hit Puerto Rico on September 13 in both 1876 and 1928,” said the administration.
While storms have also been identified using latitude-longitude methods, short distinctive names have proved more efficient to use for communications purposes. Beginning in 1953, Atlantic tropical storms were named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. In 1978, a tradition of naming storms only after women ended. Today, the storm name lists are maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization, said the NOAA.
Lists are recycled every six years and some names are retired if they serve as the moniker for particularly strong or deadly storms. Notable examples in recent years include Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Ida in 2021 and Hurricanes Fiona and Ian last year.
“If a storm forms during the off-season, it will take the next name in the list based on the current calendar date,” the NOAA explained. “For example, if a tropical cyclone formed on December 28, it would take the name from the previous season’s list of names. If a storm formed in February, it would be named from the subsequent season’s list of names.”
Each list has 21 names. If there are more tropical storms in a season, they are named from an alternate list of names approved by the WMO.
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