Greek alphabet will no longer be used when naming hurricanes

Early on, NOAA’s forecast for August-November being “extremely active” months came to fruition, given every name on the 2020 Atlantic Names List was used before October, causing the Greek alphabet to kick in! The last time that happened was the 2005 hurricane season, which spurred Katrina.

As far as the 2020 season’s timeline, however, it far surpassed 2005’s when the Greek Alphabet first kicked in on October 22, 2005 for Alpha. Beta then formed October 27, 2005. Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta all formed during November 2005 on the 15th, 22nd, and 29th, respectively.

The National Hurricane Center did not start presenting a list of names for storms until 1953. Until now, if all names were used up on the original list each season, then the Greek alphabet kicked in. 2020’s hurricane season produced thirty tropical depressions, twenty-nine of which became tropical storms. In addition, there were thirteen hurricanes, six of which became major hurricanes.

Hurricane name lists are repeated once every seven years, but certain names become retired if a storm is fatal or costly enough. Before, once the Greek alphabet kicked in, it was repeated annually if needed.

Now, instead of using the greek alphabet when every Atlantic Names List is fully used, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will, instead, provide a supplemental list of names:

Adria
Braylen
Caridad
Deshawn
Emery
Foster
Gemma
Heath
Isla
Jacobus
Kenzie
Lucio
Makayla
Nolan
Orlanda
Pax
Ronin
Sophie
Tayshun
Viviana
Will

Today, the WMO also announced two Greek alphabet named storms were retired in addition to Dorian and Laura. Eta and Iota would previously have been retired with their year, 2020 in this case, follwing behind each name in parenthesis.