Each year, the World Meteorological Organization’s RA (Regional Association) IV Hurricane Committee convenes for a week to recap the last hurricane season and discuss plans for the upcoming one. During that conference, members decide which storm names never to use again.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center, a name gets retired if a storm was “so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity.” It’s also just less confusing that way. If an upcoming hurricane got christened “Katrina,” we’d no doubt have to start calling it “Katrina 2021” to differentiate it from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Speaking of 2005, that year holds the record for most retired storm names: five, including Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma.
It’s not just hurricanes that get named—all tropical cyclones do, which also encompasses tropical storms. Though not quite as powerful as hurricanes, tropical storms can still wreak massive devastation, and some of their names have been retired, too. Examples include Allison, a tropical storm that caused major flooding in Southeast Texas in 2001, and Erika, which pummeled the Caribbean in 2015.
Names are taken from a series of six rotating lists, so retiring one requires choosing a new name to fill its place. When the committee withdrew Florence and Michael after the 2018 hurricane season, for example, they added Francine and Milton to the list that will be used first in 2024.
Since the naming system was instituted in 1953, 93 names of Atlantic basin storms have been put out to pasture. The conspicuous absence of traditionally male names for the first couple decades isn’t a coincidence—only female names were used for storms until the late 1970s.
You can see all the retired names below.
1954
- Carol
- Hazel
- Edna
1955
- Connie
- Diane
- Ione
- Janet
1957
1960
1961
- Carla
- Hattie
1963
1964
- Cleo
- Dora
- Hilda
1965
1966
1967
1969
1970
1972
1974
- Carmen
- Fifi
1975
1977
1978
1979
- David
- Frederic
1980
1983
1985
- Elena
- Gloria
1988
- Gilbert
- Joan
1989
1990
- Diana
- Klaus
1991
1992
1995
- Luis
- Marilyn
- Opal
- Roxanne
1996
- Cesar
- Fran
- Hortense
1998
- Georges
- Mitch
1999
- Floyd
- Lenny
2000
2001
- Allison
- Iris
- Michelle
2002
- Isidore
- Lili
2003
- Fabian
- Isabel
- Juan
2004
- Charley
- Frances
- Ivan
- Jeanne
2005
- Dennis
- Katrina
- Rita
- Stan
- Wilma
2007
- Dean
- Felix
- Noel
2008
- Gustav
- Ike
- Paloma
2010
- Igor
- Tomas
2011
2012
2013
2015
- Erika
- Joaquin
2016
- Matthew
- Otto
2017
- Harvey
- Irma
- Maria
- Nate
2018
- Florence
- Michael
2019
2020
- Laura
- Eta
- Iota
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