GENEVA – The Atlantic hurricane names Dorian, Laura, Eta and Iota are being retired due to the trail of death and destruction left in their wake, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday.
The four names were wiped off the list following a two-day meeting of the WMO's Hurricane Committee, which serves North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The group's work "is critical to keep our nations coordinated well before the next storm threatens", said committee chair Ken Graham, director of the US National Hurricane Center.
"Hurricanes don't care about international boundaries. We all face similar dangers from tropical systems. Impacts from a single storm can affect multiple countries, so it is critical we have a plan, coordinate our efforts, and share challenges and best practices."
Throughout the annual hurricane season which runs from June 1, storms are assigned alternating male and female names in alphabetical order, last year beginning with Arthur and Bertha.
Storms are named to make them easier to identify in warning messages.
Dexter and Leah listed
The names are overseen by the WMO. They are reused every six years, though if any hurricane is particularly devastating, its name is retired and replaced.
The name lists use 21 of the 26 letters of the alphabet due to the difficulty in finding a balance of six easily recognisable English, Spanish, French and Dutch names starting with Q, U, X, Y and Z – the languages spoken in the Atlantic and Caribbean regions affected.
Dexter will replace Dorian on the list of names; Leah will replace Laura.
If there are more than 26 such storms in a year, as happened in 2005 and 2020, the namers have switched to using letters of the Greek alphabet.
However the WMO on Wednesday said that in future the Greek alphabet will be replaced by a supplemental list of names.
"There is confusion with some Greek alphabet names when they are translated into other languages used within the region," the WMO said.
Furthermore, the letters Zeta, Eta and Theta occur in succession, resulting last year in simultaneous, similar-sounding storms, confusing the object of naming storms – to help ensure clear communication.
Last year, the Atlantic season got nine letters into the Greek alphabet.
The list of supplementary names to be used from now on starts with Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath and Isla.
In total, 93 names have now been retired from the Atlantic basin list since 1953, when storms began to be named under the current system.
2020's record-breaking 30 named Atlantic hurricanes led to at least 400 fatalities and cost $41 billion in damages.
More than a century of temperature and precipitation data, along with decades of satellite data on hurricanes and sea level rise, have left no doubt that Earth's warming surface temperature is a factor. – AFP, March 18, 2021
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