2018 hurricane names

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Followed by Greek alphabet if necessary – alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega. Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. There are six lists of storm names that are rotated each season. The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. Several names have been retired since the lists were created. Most recently Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate were removed from the list, but 4 names from one season wasn’t a record. The 2005 Hurricane season saw the most names retired: Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.