Arkansas Storm Team Blog: Who's in charge of naming hurricanes?

Ever wonder who's in charge of tropical storm and hurricane names?

It's the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). There are also storm names to include: Australia, India, China, Jakarta & Port Moseby.

For this article, we'll focus on the Atlantic Basin covering the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico & North Atlantic Ocean.

Names are not based off individual people, rather common ones people are familiar with where tropical storms and hurricanes impact. They're of English, Spanish, French & Portuguese decent, which are the languages frequently spoken in North America, Central America & the Caribbean.

Male and female names are rotated in alphabetical order excluding: Q, U, X, Y, Z.

There are six lists of 21 names recycled every six years in the Atlantic Basin. The names from last year in 2022 may sound familiar in 2028, since they're repeated. The exception to this are retired names. A name is retired when the storm is particularly deadly or costly. Think of imminent hurricanes like Katrina, Irma and Andrew.

Here's the list of hurricane names you won't see recycled for the Atlantic Basin:
Agnes, Alicia, Allen, Allison, Andrew, Anita, Audrey, Betsy, Beulah, Bob, Camille, Carla, Carmen, Carol, Celia, Cesar, Charley, Cleo, Connie, David, Dean, Dennis, Diana, Diane, Donna, Dora, Dorian, Edna, Elena, Eloise, Erika, Eta, Fabian, Felix, Fifi, Fiona, Flora, Florence, Floyd, Fran, Frances, Frederic, Georges, ...