In this NOAA GOES-East satellite handout image, Hurricane Dorian, now a Cat. 5 storm, tracks towards the Florida coast taken at 13:20Z September 1, 2019 in the Atlantic Ocean.
HOUSTON - The World Meteorological Organization is ending the use of the Greek alphabet for naming hurricanes. In a virtual conference, the World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee reviewed the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic season and also announced the retirement of the names Dorian (2019), Laura (2020), Eta (2020), and Iota (2020).
"The current naming system has been in place since 1953," explains FOX26 Meteorologist John Dawson. "We’ve only needed to use the Greek Alphabet twice, last year and back in 2005. And things just really did not go smooth with the Greek letters in 2020."
Instead, the Hurricane Committee members agreed to create a supplemental list of names that would be used in lieu of the Greek alphabet when the standard list is exhausted in a given season. Names on this list could be retired and replaced, when required. Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z are still not common enough or easily understood in local languages to be slotted into the rotating lists.
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The 2020 season showed that there were a number of shortcomings with the use of the Greek alphabet.
• There can be too much focus on the use of Greek alphabet names and not the actual impacts from the storm. This can greatly detract from the needed impact and safety messaging.
• There is confusion with some Greek alphabet names when they are translated into other languages used within the Region.
• The pronunciation of several of the Greek letters (Zeta, Eta, Theta) are similar and occur in succession. In 2020, this resulted in storms with very similar sounding names occurring simultaneously, which led to messaging challenges rather than streamlined and clear communication.
• Impacts from Eta and Iota were severe enough that those names have formally retired by the Hurricane Committee. There was no formal plan for retiring Greek names, and the future use of these names would be inappropriate.
A supplemental list of tropical cyclone names in lieu of using the Greek Alphabet was agreed by the committee.