WASHINGTON — The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially gets underway on June 1, and 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. In other words, one list is repeated every 6th year. For example, this season's list was last used in 2018 and is the same list without 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 names "Florence" and "Michael" were retired following the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, following their impactful landfalls in the United States. They were replaced with the names "Francine" and "Milton" that will be used for the first time this season, if necessary.
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 occurred at the same time.
One of the more frequently used names is "Chris." In fact, the name has been used every six years since 1982. Chris has never been a very destructive or deadly storm so it's been reused whenever its 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.
An average Atlantic hurricane season features 14 named storms, 7 of which become hurricanes with 3 becoming "major" hurricanes. To reach a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the hurricane must have sustained winds of at least 111 mph. The 14th named storm this season would be named “Nadine.”
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane list of names will be used again in 2030, minus any names that could be retired following this season. The first named storm of 2024 will be “Alberto.”
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