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2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season Names List | Weather.com
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Facts About Each Of The 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season Names

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At a Glance

  • This year's list of 21 Atlantic hurricane season names has some changes.
  • That's because four names from 2017 were retired from future use, since they were so damaging and/or deadly.
  • Hurricane name lists typically repeat every six years.
  • Some of this year's names have had an interesting recent history.

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The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season names list includes many used before, but also four new ones because of four damaging hurricanes six years ago.

Contrary to popular opinion, a committee of the World Meteorological Organization – not the U.S. National Hurricane Center – is responsible for the tropical cyclone name lists, not just in the Atlantic Basin, but in other basins around the world.

E​ach Atlantic list consists of 21 names that repeat every six years unless one is so destructive and/or deadly that the committee votes to retire that name from future lists.

S​o let's step through the list and highlight some notables from some of the names.

Arlene: The last "Arlene" was one of only three known April Atlantic storms on record from April 20-21, 2017. The name was first used in the Atlantic Basin in 1959.

Bret: The last "Bret" was in 2017 and was a short-lived oddity for late June. No other tropical storm had formed so early in the season so far south and east before Bret did so east of Trinidad. Bret was also the first system in which tropical storm warnings were issued before the storm developed, under a procedure implemented that year by the National Hurricane Center called a "potential tropical cyclone".

Cindy: Cindy was the first hurricane landfall of the devastating, record 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Perhaps it's most remembered by the F2 tornado it spawned which tore through the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Damage at the Atlanta Motor Speedway after an F2 tornado spawned by then Tropical Depression Cindy on July 6, 2005.
(NWS-Peachtree City, Georgia)

Don: This name replaced Dennis, which was retired after the 2005 season. The 2011 version of Don virtually evaporated as it limped into drought-stricken South Texas.

Emily: In 2005, Emily became the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin when it briefly did so in the western Caribbean Sea on July 16. That record still stands today. It struck Grenada, then swept through Cozumel and eventually northeast Mexico. Emily's small wind field limited damage in the Yucatan Peninsula. No deaths were reported in Mexico, partially due to evacuations before its arrival.

image
Visible satellite image of Hurricane Emily just before it reached Category 5 strength on July 16, 2005.
(NOAA/NASA)

Franklin: The most recent version made a Category 1 hurricane landfall north of Veracruz, Mexico, in August 2017. Franklin was the replacement after Floyd was retired following the 1999 season.

Gert: The 2017 version reached Category 2 intensity as it curled well east of the U.S. East Coast and south of Atlantic Canada. Gert has been in use in the Atlantic Basin since 1981.

Harold: This is the name that replaced "Harvey", the most significant tropical cyclone rain event in U.S. history. Harold was used for a South Pacific Category 5 cyclone that hammered Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga in April 2020.

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Idalia: This is the name that replaced "Irma" after 2017. Names beginning with the letter "I" have been retired the most (13), excluding 2020's Iota, which was a supplemental name after the 21 names in the list were used up.

Jose: In use in the Atlantic Basin since 1981, the last version in 2017 gave the northern Leeward Islands, some of which were devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Irma just days before, a scare, before its eyewall curled just north of the islands at Category 4 intensity.

Katia: The 2017 version made a Category 1 landfall along the Mexican Gulf Coast. But Katia is also known as the name that replaced Katrina after 2005.

Lee: 2011's Tropical Storm Lee was infamous not as much for its northern Gulf Coast landfall and South impacts, but its record flooding as a remnant over the interior Northeast less than two weeks after the region was swamped with heavy rain from Hurricane Irene. Lee also replaced Lenny after the November 1999 hurricane's weird west-to-east path took it through the northern Leeward Islands at Category 4 intensity.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Parts of Binghamton, New York, were flooded after heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee in early September 2011.
(NWS-Binghamton, New York)

Margot: This name replaced Maria, which claimed almost 3,000 lives when it slammed into Puerto Rico in September 2017. Margot was used once before for a Southern Indian Ocean cyclone in April 1985 that didn't strike land.

Nigel: This is the last of the new names of 2023. Nigel replaced Nate, which was retired after its torrential rain triggered widespread deadly flooding and mudslides in Central America before it made a Category 1 landfall along the northern Gulf Coast.

T​hat takes us through what would be an average hurricane season of 14 storms.

H​ere are some other notables about the rest of the 2023 names list.

-​The remnant of 2017's Hurricane Ophelia tracked through Ireland, northern Scotland, and even made it to Norway. 2005's Ophelia made a pair of loops off the Southeast U.S. coast, then lingered off the North Carolina coast.

-​The only other time Tammy was used was for a weird early October 2005 tropical storm that lead to significant rainfall flooding in parts of southeast Georgia, including Glynn and McIntosh Counties.

-​ Just three days after Tammy, Vince briefly became a hurricane in the far eastern Atlantic just northwest of Madeira Island. Wind shear weakened it before it limped ashore near Huelva, Spain, on Oct. 11, 2005. It was the only time Vince was used in the Atlantic Basin.

-​ The "W" storm has only been used in the Atlantic Basin three times since that requires a season to produce at least 21 named storms. In 2021, Wanda eventually became a subtropical, then tropical, storm over the open North Atlantic well after it was a damaging nor'easter for parts of New England. Wilfred was one of three systems that became storms within a six-hour period on Sept. 18, 2020. And 2005's Wilma was a $28.7 billion U.S. hurricane after it clobbered Cancún and became the most intense Atlantic Basin hurricane, by pressure (882 millibars).

image
This infrared satellite image shows Hurricane Wilma's tiny eye as it was at peak intensity on Oct. 19, 2005.
(NOAA)

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