Two Atlantic Hurricane Names Retired

March 27, 2017 6:10 pm

By: Tim Studebaker

Since 1953, tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic have had names. When a storm is particularly destructive, its name is retired.

Bob Thompson, Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service office in Taunton, says, “It then becomes really somewhat insensitive to have future storms with the same name."

So far, 80 names have been retired. Names like Katrina and Sandy come to mind. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization announced that 2 names from the 2016 hurricane season will be added to the list: Matthew and Otto.

Neither of those had an effect on southern New England, but we’ve had our fair share of named storms, some now retired. The hurricane of 1938 came before storm names.

Thompson says, “Undoubtedly, the ’38 hurricane would have been retired if we were naming storms then.”

Then in the 50s and 60s, we had Diane, Donna, and Carol, which hit in 1954.

Thompson, “[Carol] did cause loss of life and substantial damage. We had flooding of downtown Providence. That was shortly before the Fox Point hurricane barrier was built.”

Fast forward to the 80s and 90s, and you had Gloria and Bob, which hit in 1991. More recently, we had Irene as well as Sandy.

Thompson, “That was no picnic because, actually, Sandy totally eroded a protective dune that was built up after Carol."

There are 6 lists of storm names that are used in a 6 year cycle. When a name is retired, it’s replaced. If you’re curious, Matthew will be replaced with Martin, and Otto with Owen.