Three Hurricane Names Retired

Three of last year’s hurricanes have had their names retired by the World Meteorological Organization. This means there will never be another Hurricane Dean, Felix, of Noel. Dean and Felix were the back to back category five hurricanes that moved across the Caribbean and hit Central America last summer. Dean hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with 165 mph winds and is responsible for 32 deaths. Felix made landfall in Nicaragua as a category five storm, marking the first time that two cat 5’s have made landfall in the same season. Felix is responsible for 130 deaths in Nicaragua and Honduras. Noel was a much weaker storm, reaching a peak as a category one hurricane, but it did much of it’s damage as a tropical storm. The slow moving storm flooded the Dominican Republic, Haiti and eastern Cuba, killing at least 160 people.

The list of hurricane names is repeated every 6 years. The next time last year’s names will be used is in 2013, and in that list Dean, Felix, and Noel have been replaced with Dorian, Fernand, and Nestor. No names were retired in 2006, so these are the first names to be retired since a record five were retired in 2005.

Hurricane season begins Sunday. Here is the list of names we will use this year: Arthur, Bertha, Christobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred.

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