# NWS May run out of 2020 hurricane names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184 "2020-09-09T17:37:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/1 "2020-09-09T17:37:54Z")
Already up to R. 4 names left. Then they go to greek letters. Alpha, Beta, etc ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/2 "2020-09-10T11:47:08Z")
Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred are the 4 left ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/3 "2020-09-11T22:09:31Z")
Most likely Sally will be a new storm on Sunday ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/4 "2020-09-12T02:45:25Z")
NWS ran out of names in 2005. As per their plan, they started using Greek alphabet. Any time you want to see where a record was set look at 2005. Not only was there a storm in January, there was a tropical storm in the South Atlantic, something that apparently had never happened before or since. It is controversial though, many meteorologists don’t classify it as a tropical storm. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/5 "2020-09-12T19:52:38Z")
Sally is the latest storm ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/6 "2020-09-12T20:34:59Z")
Didn’t Jessica Alba play Sally Storm? 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/7 "2020-09-14T16:12:50Z")
5 named storms in the Atlantic now, that is a record. Vicky is the next name on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/8 "2020-09-14T17:45:37Z")
[Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Beyond_Zebra!) is a proposal for new names. From Dr. Seuss. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/9 "2020-09-15T01:55:45Z")
Vicky is now a tropical storm. Next up: Wilfred. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/10 "2020-09-23T01:28:09Z")
Paulette went away but now it’s back. They call it a zombie storm. Also 9 named storms made landfall in the US , a new record for 1 year . Beta was the most recent ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/11 "2020-09-23T02:56:50Z")
“Zombie tropical storm” may be among the ultimate 2020 phrases. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/12 "2020-09-23T10:33:24Z")
They retire names if the storm is bad, do they retire Greek letters? Not sure Beta was bad enough to retire. Brian ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/13 "2020-09-23T10:58:08Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > They retire names if the storm is bad, do they retire Greek letters? Currently Greek letter names are not retired. From “2020 hurricane season exhausts regular list of names”: “the Committee also agreed that it was not practical to ‘retire into hurricane history’ a letter in the Greek Alphabet” [https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/2020-hurricane-season-exhausts-regular-list-of-names](https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/2020-hurricane-season-exhausts-regular-list-of-names) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/14 "2020-09-23T18:43:19Z")
Paulette is gone again ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/15 "2020-09-24T02:41:09Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred are the 4 left Why are Ursula, Xavier, Yolanda, and Zendaya off the table? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/16 "2020-09-24T02:50:11Z")
The World Meteorological Organization manages the annual lists of hurricane names; they rotate use of names on a six-year cycle, and retire names that have been assigned to storms that wound up being particularly damaging or otherwise infamous. They specifically do not use Q, U, X, Y, or Z, because they feel that there aren’t enough given names in English or Spanish (the two languages used for Atlantic hurricane names) that start with those letters, especially when one has to also account for retiring names (which necessitates adding new names to the list). > **[Why you won’t hear certain names during Atlantic hurricane season](https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/why-you-wont-hear-certain-names-during-atlantic-hurricane-season/355791)** > > On each of the six lists of names that are rotated every sixth Atlantic hurricane season, you’ll likely never see a Quincy, Ursula or Zachary. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/17 "2020-09-24T11:57:31Z")
Instead of Greek letters, they should have a second alphabet of names. Not one of the six sets they rotate through, but an additional one. This secondary list could be used as supplement for any of the other lists when they run out. And names can be retired from it too. But if we have to use it virtually every year, they may want to have more than one secondary list, so we aren’t seeing the same names repeated so often. But that probably won’t happen. Climate change is more likely to make stronger storms rather than more of them. The thing is, eventually one of these Greek letter names is going to be really bad and whoever gets hit with it will want to retire that name. What do they do then? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/18 "2020-09-24T16:28:01Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > The thing is, eventually one of these Greek letter names is going to be really bad and whoever gets hit with it will want to retire that name. What do they do then? Likely just skip that letter the next time that they have to resort to the secondary list. That said, if it becomes the norm that we have 20+ named storms each year in the Atlantic, they may need to develop a new naming protocol. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/19 "2020-09-25T02:02:30Z")
[The Weather Channel](https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-09-22-atlantic-hurricane-season-greek-names-retirement) has a factual answer for you: > Following the 2005 season, the WMO hurricane committee met and decided to keep using the Greek alphabet names as a backup list each year. This was based on the fact that using Greek alphabet names would not be frequent enough to justify a change to this policy. > > That WMO meeting also determined that the retirement of a Greek alphabet name for a particularly damaging tropical storm or hurricane was not feasible. > > Instead, the committee opted to introduce a policy where if a tropical storm or hurricane with a Greek alphabet name needed to be retired, it would include the name along with the year of occurrence in its list of retired names. That Greek alphabet name would then continue to be available for any other times the backup list is used in the future. So if, say, Hurricane Gamma causes widespread damage and destruction this year, they’d retire the name Gamma (2020), and re-use the name Gamma the next time it comes up. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184/20 "2020-10-11T02:56:40Z")
We’re now at 10 that have made landfall, with Delta deciding to copy Laura’s path. Epsilon appears to be brewing, too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nws-may-run-out-of-2020-hurricane-names/920184.md?page=2)