With the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season already expected to be busy, it's time to take a look at this year's storm names and supplemental names that will be used if it's especially active.
The hurricane season begins June 1 and researchers are expecting an "above-average" year, with experts like the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project predicting 19 named storms and nine hurricanes.
HURRICANE SEASON
The list of storm names only covers 21 letters of the alphabet, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and Z due to the difficulty in finding suitable names that start with those letters.
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The World Meteorological Organization maintains six storm name lists which are used in rotation, meaning the 2022 list will be used again in 2028.
The 2022 storm names are:
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Ian
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Martin
Nicole
Owen
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tobias
Virginie
Walter
A name can be retired or withdrawn from the active list if a storm by that name gains special notoriety due to the damage or human casualties they cause, or if they do something meteorologically historic.
Over the last six hurricane seasons, some of the most-infamous storms of all time were retired, including Harvey, Irma, Maria, Dorian, Laura, Ida, Michael and Florence. Since 1955, there have been a total of 94 Atlantic storm names retired.
Once the 21 names on the list are used in one season, a list of supplemental names is used.
Through 2020, the Greek alphabet was used when the list of storm names ran out.
The 2020 season was record-breaking, with 30 named storms and 13 hurricanes, including six major hurricanes. It was only the second time the Greek alphabet was utilized to complete a season.
After that season, the Greek alphabet was ended by the WMO, which said the practice was confusing and put too much focus on the Greek letter and not on the dangerous storm it represented.
The 2021 season was the third-most active season on record, with 21 named storms, meaning the supplemental list wasn't used.
Should it need to be used this year, here is the list of supplemental storm names:
Adria
Braylen
Caridad
Deshawn
Emery
Foster
Gemma
Heath
Isla
Jacobus
Kenzie
Lucio
Makayla
Nolan
Orlanda
Pax
Ronin
Sophie
Tayshaun
Viviana
Will
