Our money is on ‘Edouard’ or ‘Isaias’

The Hurricane names are out, and the winners are… - Hurricane Irma

To better communicate with the public, forecasters worldwide use short, distinctive names to describe tropical storms and hurricanes. According to the National Hurricane Center, the practice of naming storms is especially important when exchanging detailed weather information among hundreds of widely scattered weather stations, coastal bases and ships at sea.

That said, it seems hurricanes with the most unusual names — hard to pronounce or old-fashioned — are more likely to visit the equally strange Florida Keys: Georges, Wilma, Irma.

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists that originate at the National Hurricane Center. The lists rotate every six years, so this year’s list will be used again in 2026. The only time there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name for a different storm would be inappropriate.

Normally, the World Meteorological Organization retires names in March. Due to the coronavirus, the group won’t meet until 2021, when the name Dorian likely will be retired. 

Hurricane names for 2020

Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred