LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Will ‘Ida’ be retired from the list of hurricane names?
Statistically speaking, storms featuring an ‘I’ name are the most likely to be retired. A total of 12 ‘I’-named storms have been retired since 1954, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
“The only time that there is a change in the (hurricane name) list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name for a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity,” states the NHC’s website. “If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the World Meteorological Organization committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.”
The World Meteorological Organization won’t consider striking the name until the end of hurricane season. So, we won’t officially know if Ida is deemed damaging enough to retire until the WMO announces it, which will likely happen in early 2022.
The three names retired earlier this year were each linked to storms causing upwards of $3 billion in projected damages and dozens of fatalities.
As of early Monday, the AP reports only a “modest blow” to the U.S. economy is expected from Ida. At least one death was blamed on the hurricane. At the time it made landfall, Ida tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland, according to the AP.
The WMO uses six sets of hurricane names, and they rotate through that list every year. For instance, this year’s list of names will be used again in 2027. Each list has 21 names. (There are no ‘Q,’ ‘U,’ ‘X,’ ‘Y,’ or ‘Z’ names.) The WMO first started rotating names lists in 1979.
Retiring a name is actually pretty common. There are only 20 years since 1954 that have passed without a name being retired. The most names retired in a single year was in 2005 (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, Wilma). Tied for second place (with four names retired each) are 1955, 1995, 2004, and 2017.
The following are the ‘I’ named storms retired since 1954.
- Ione (1955)
- Inez (1966)
- Iris (2001)
- Isidore (2002)
- Isabel (2003)
- Ivan (2004)
- Ike (2008)
- Igor (2010)
- Irene (2011)
- Ingrid (2013)
- Irma (2017)
- Iota (2020)
The NHC has a full list of retired names by year. A total of 93 names have been retired.
The WMO committee agreed this year to create a supplemental list of names A-Z that will be used when the existing name set is exhausted in a given season. Last year, the Greek alphabet was used, but the committee determined that those letters caused confusion and distraction.