No Atlantic Hurricane Name Has Been Used Longer than Florence, But It Likely Won’t Be Used Again

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The naming of Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms began in 1950 with names based on the phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, etc.). The National Hurricane Center ditched that in 1953 in favor of female names. Male names were added in 1979.

Beginning in 1979, six lists of names were put in place by a committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which now manages the lists. These lists repeat every six years, unless a storm is so notoriously deadly and/or destructive that further use of the name would be insensitive or confusing. 

Each spring, the WMO committee convenes to vote on which storm names from the previous hurricane season should be retired from future use. For example, four names from the 2017 Atlantic season - Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate - were retired. 

The name Florence has been in use in the Atlantic Basin since 1953, during which it has been used eight other times.

These included two previous U.S. Florence landfalls, both Category 1, in the Florida Panhandle in 1953 and in southeast Louisiana in 1988. 

The other Florence tropical cyclones were either too weak or remained over open water. 

Only one other name in the six-year Atlantic name rotation, Dolly, has survived as long as Florence.

Here are some names still in the six-year rotation, and when they were first used:

- Dolly: 1953- Bertha: 1957- Helene: 1958- Arlene: 1959- Cindy: 1959

Admittedly, part of this is luck. 

Whenever the name "Florence" has popped up in the naming list, it's been given to either a storm that stays out to sea, or doesn't inflict particularly massive damage or fatalities at the coast or inland.

Given the destructive potential of 2018's Florence, it seems likely to be retired in spring 2019, ending its 65-year run as an Atlantic hurricane name.