Greek alphabet ditched for hurricane names, officials release names of 2021 storms

by George Flickinger & Will Stafford

Sun, May 23rd 2021, 11:23 AM UTC

FILE - This Oct. 8, 2020 photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:41 p.m. EDT. (NOAA via AP)

Traditional list of named storms for 2021. An auxiliary list would be used if we exhaust these 21 names

No more using Greek letters for naming hurricanes. There are no guidelines for retiring a storm named with a Greek letter.{ }Last year, 3 storms named with a Greek letter were major hurricanes and were worthy of retirement.{ }

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FILE - This Oct. 8, 2020 photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Delta in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:41 p.m. EDT. (NOAA via AP)

(WSET) — The hurricane season is already off to a quick start.

Ana, the first storm of the season, formed on Saturday in the Atlantic near Bermuda. The storm will move away from the United States.

A more active than normal Atlantic hurricane season is expected this year. Here are the list of names that will be used:

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Elsa
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Julian
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

The Greek alphabet has been retired from future tropical storms and hurricane names. Starting this year, the Greek alphabet will no longer be used if we run beyond 21 named storms. We will go back to the letter "A" with the second set of names.

"Adria" and "Braylen" would be storms #22 and #23 if we reach into the auxiliary list, rather than the Greek alphabet. That had been used as a "just in case" list if we ran out of traditional names. The Greek alphabet was used twice: 2005 and 2020.

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No procedures were in place if a Greek letter needed retiring, So last year - when three of our major hurricanes in the Atlantic were major hurricanes (some of them causing considerable damage to life and property) it was quickly recognized that the guidelines needed to be changed.

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