Tropical Storm Francine formed Monday , Sept. 9 in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become a hurricane before it makes landfall. Meanwhile, there are two other systems out in the Atlantic with the potential to become tropical depressions and more.
Could we see a Hurricane Gordon or a Tropical Storm Helene in the next few weeks?
Originally the National Hurricane Center , AccuWeather, and WeatherTiger all predicted an extremely busy hurricane season this year, with AccuWeather predicting an "explosive" season that would break the record of named storms.
After the summer produced fewer storms than expected , each service released updated forecasts with reduced — but still above the historical average — numbers.
What are the names for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season?
It's been a busy storm season, if not (yet) as busy as forecasters predicted.
- Tropical Storm Alberto flooded parts of Mexico, leading to four deaths, and dumped rain over Texas.
- Hurricane Beryl broke multiple records, became the earliest Cat 4 and Cat 5 hurricane on record, made three landfalls, caused billions in damages and resulted in at least 70 deaths.
- T ropical Storm Chris fizzled over Mexico but not before flooding thousands of homes and killing six people.
- Hurricane Debby slammed into Florida and continued over the southeast United States, causing massive flooding and widespread outages.
- Hurricane Ernesto became a Category 2 hurricane before hitting Bermuda as a Cat 1, dropped to a tropical storm, then strengthened back into a Cat 2 as it went past Canada. At least deaths were attributed to rip currents from Ernesto.
- Tropical Storm Francine formed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Next up is Gordon.
Hurricane names: Where do they come from and how often are they repeated?
Starting in 1955 there were four rotating lists, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) replaced them with nine lists in 1972. In 1979 NOAA turned control over the naming of storms to the World Meteorological Organization , which opted for six lists with 21 names on each one that include male names and names from other cultures.
The six lists are used in rotation. So names used in 2024 won't be used again in 2030.
The exception is if a storm was "so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity," according to the WMO. In that case, the nation hit hardest by the storm can request that the name be removed.
If a storm name is retired from the Atlantic's list, member countries of the WMO from that region select a new name. For Atlantic storms, the name can be French, Spanish or English , reflecting the languages of residents of countries that could be hit by a hurricane.
Shouldn't there be 26 names?
It was tricky finding six suitable names — one for each of the six lists — for Q, U, X, Y and Z , according to the WMO. And until recently, it wasn't that much of a problem.
What do we name hurricanes if we run out of the list in a year?
Up until 2020, if the entire list of names for a year were used the WMO used the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc. Forecasters did that twice, in 2005 and 2020.
But in 2020 there were a record 30 named storms with nine of them using Greek alphabet names. In 2021, a supplemental list of names was created .
If all 21 names are used for Atlantic-basin storms, the supplemental list of names is:
- Adria
- Braylen
- Caridad
- Deshawn
- Emery
- Foster
- Gemma
- Heath
- Isla
- Jacobus
- Kenzie
- Lucio
- Makayla
- Nolan
- Orlanda
- Pax
- Ronin
- Sophie
- Tayshaun
- Viviana
- Will
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tropical Storm Francine is 2024's 6th named storm. What storm name is next?
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