When did the convention of hurricane naming begin?
1991 Perfect Storm
Beginning in 1950, the National Hurricane Center named officially recognized tropical storms and hurricanes. The unnamed hurricane was reported to have met all the criteria for a tropical cyclone, but it was purposefully left unnamed. This was done to avoid confusion among the media and the public, who were focusing on the damage from the initial nor'easter, as the hurricane itself was not expected to pose a major threat to land. It was the eighth nameable storm of the 1991 Atlantic hurricane season. Had the system been named instead, it would have received the name "Henri", which was the next name on the 1991 list after Grace.
1928 Okeechobee hurricane
In Puerto Rico, since European colonization, storms and hurricanes were named after the name of the saint's day that the storm hit the island. For example, they named the Great Hurricane of 1780 as "San Calixto", after Saint Callixtus, whose feast day is October 14; the 1867 San Narciso hurricane, the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane, and the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane were also named after the saints' feast days on which they occurred (respectively, Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem on October 29, Saint Cyriacus on August 8, and Saint Cyprian on September 26).
Hurricane Able (1950)
From 1950 through 1952, names from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet were first used for storms in the North Atlantic. Able is the first name in the alphabet, and as such, Hurricane Able in 1950 was the first name officially to be used for an Atlantic hurricane. It was also the first of eight major hurricanes in the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season, which as of 2010 was thought to be the record for the most major hurricanes in a season. However, as of 2014, it was found that several storms in 1950 were weaker than thought, and it was found that only six major hurricanes formed, so the record is now held by 1961 and 2005.
1950 Atlantic hurricane season
The season officially began on June 15 and ended on November 15; these dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. This season was the first time that the United States Weather Bureau operated with radar technology to observe hurricanes away from land. Although the season began on June 15, tropical activity typically does not begin before August. The tropics remained tranquil through early August, and the U.S. Weather Bureau noted that the season had been "remarkably quiet". The inactive period ended on August 12, when the first tropical storm developed east of the Lesser Antilles. This storm received the name "Able" as part of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. (The same alphabet was also used in the 1951 and 1952 seasons, before being replaced by female naming in 1953.)
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
In 1978, the first hurricane-tracking model based on atmospheric dynamics—the movable fine-mesh (MFM) model—began operating. Within the field of tropical cyclone track forecasting, despite the ever-improving dynamical model guidance which occurred with increased computational power, it was not until the 1980s when numerical weather prediction showed skill, and until the 1990s when it consistently outperformed statistical or simple dynamical models. Predictions of the intensity of a tropical cyclone based on numerical weather prediction continue to be a challenge, since statistical methods continue to show higher skill over dynamical guidance.
Hurricane Gustav (2002)
Gustav was the first subtropical storm to be given a name from the current name lists by the National Hurricane Center. Prior to the 2002 season, Atlantic subtropical storms were either not named or given a number from a separate numbering list than tropical cyclones.
History of tropical cyclone naming
After reading about Clement Wragge, George Stewart was inspired to write a novel, "Storm", about a storm affecting California which was named Maria. The book was widely read after it was published in 1941 by Random House, especially by United States Army Air Corps and United States Navy meteorologists during World War II. During 1944, United States Army Air Forces forecasters at the newly established Saipan weather center, started to informally name typhoons after their wives and girlfriends. This practise became popular amongst meteorologists from the United States Airforce and Navy who found that it reduced confusion during map discussions, and in 1945 the United States Armed Services publicly adopted a list of women's names for typhoons of the Pacific. However, they were not able to persuade the United States Weather Bureau to start naming Atlantic hurricanes, as the Weather Bureau wanted to be seen as a serious enterprise, and thus felt that it was "not appropriate" to name tropical cyclones while warning the United States public. They also felt that using women's names was frivolous and that using the names in official communications would have made them look silly. During 1947 the Air Force Hurricane Office in Miami started using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet to name significant tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean. These names were used over the next few years in private/internal communications between weather centres and aircraft, and were not included in public bulletins.
1981 Atlantic hurricane season
A frontal low over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream organized into a subtropical storm on November 12 while east of Jacksonville, Florida. After moving northeastward, it turned to the northwest, threatening the northeastern United States as an intensifying subtropical storm that was gradually developing tropical characteristics. A high pressure system turned it to the northeast, and after peaking at it became extratropical near Nova Scotia on November 17. The storm produced significant beach erosion and coastal flooding.
The following list of names was used for named storms that formed in the North Atlantic in 1981. It was the first use for all of these names since the post-1978 naming change, except for Arlene, Cindy, and Irene, which had been previously used in 1959, 1963, 1967, and 1971. There were no names retired this year; thus, the same list was used again in the 1987 season.
1993 Atlantic hurricane season
Forecasts of hurricane activity are issued before each hurricane season by Dr. William M. Gray and his associates at Colorado State University (CSU) and the Weather Research Center (WRC). A normal season as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has 12.1 named storms, of which 6.4 reach hurricane strength, and 2.7 become major hurricanes. In December 1992, Gray anticipated a near average season with 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes. Another predication on April 16, 1993 was unchanged from the previous forecast. In June, Gray revised the number of hurricanes to seven, though the forecast of named storms and major hurricanes remained the same. By August, the number hurricanes predicted was lowered back to six, matching the December 1992 and April forecasts. The sole prediction made by the WRC called for seven named storms and five hurricanes, though no forecast was made on the numbers of major hurricanes.
History of tropical cyclone naming
During March 2004, a rare tropical cyclone developed within the Southern Atlantic, about to the east-southeast of Florianópolis in southern Brazil. As the system was threatening the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a newspaper used the headline "Furacão Catarina," which was presumed to mean "furacão (hurricane) threatening (Santa) Catarina (the state)". However, when the international press started monitoring the system, it was assumed that "Furacão Catarina" meant "Cyclone Catarina" and that it had been formally named in the usual way. During the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the names pre-assigned for the North Atlantic basin were exhausted and as a result names from the Greek alphabet were used. There were subsequently a couple of attempts to get rid of the Greek names, as they are seen to be inconsistent with the standard naming convention used for tropical cyclones, and are generally unknown and confusing to the public. However, none of the attempts have succeeded and thus the Greek alphabet will be used should the lists ever be used up again. Ahead of the 2007 hurricane season, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Hawaii State Civil Defense requested that the hurricane committee retire eleven names from the Eastern Pacific naming lists. However, the committee declined the request and noted that its criteria for the retirement of names was "well defined and very strict." It was felt that while the systems may have had a significant impact on the Hawaiian Islands, none of the impacts were major enough to warrant the retirement of the names. It was also noted that the committee had previously not retired names for systems that had a greater impact than those that had been submitted. The CPHC also introduced a revised set of Hawaiian names for the Central Pacific, after they had worked with the University of Hawaii Hawaiian Studies Department to ensure the correct meaning and appropriate historical and cultural use of the names.
1980 Pacific hurricane season
An area of disturbed weather southeast of Socorro Island became a tropical storm on October 28. It headed northeast and approached the coast of Mexico. However, an area of high wind shear and cool waters destroyed the cyclone on October 29, before it could reach the coast. Newton was the tropical cyclone that came closest to making landfall this season. No impact was reported.
The following names were used for named storms that formed in the eastern Pacific in 1980. No names were retired, so it was used again in the 1986 season. This was the first time most of these names were used since the modern lists began, except for Agatha, Estelle, Georgette and Madeline, which were previously used in the old four-year lists.
In contrast to previous years, where tropical cyclones forming in the central Pacific received names from the western Pacific naming lists, a separate set of five central Pacific hurricane naming lists were created for the 1980 season. The list used for the 1980 season was intended to be reused for the 1985 season. However, as no storms formed in the central Pacific in 1980, these five naming lists were scrapped and replaced with the modern set of central Pacific naming lists for the following season. The first name to be used on the modern lists was Akoni in the 1982 season.
Pacific hurricane
The format of the database was completely revised by the NHC during 1984, so that the format could resemble the Atlantic database before they took over the warning responsibility from the EPHC for the Eastern Pacific during 1988. During 2008 and 2013 several revisions were made to the database to extend tracks in land, based on reports in the Mariners Weather Log and extrapolation of the tracks since the EPHC stopped issuing advisories on systems before they made landfall. The archives format was significantly changed during 2013 to include non-synoptic best track times, non-developing tropical depressions and wind radii. During February 2016, the NHC released the 1959 Mexico hurricane's reanalysis, which was the first system to be reassessed, using methods developed for the Atlantic reanalysis process.
1985 Atlantic hurricane season
Forecasts of hurricane activity are issued before each hurricane season by Dr. William M. Gray and his associates at Colorado State University (CSU) and the Weather Research Center (WRC). A normal season as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has 12.1 named storms, of which 6.4 reach hurricane strength, and 2.7 become major hurricanes. Neither CSU or WRC issued a forecast on the number of major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. In early 1985, WRC predicted 8 named storms and 5 hurricanes. The CSU forecast for April 1985 was 11 named storms and 8 hurricanes. This forecast was not revised in June. In their August outlook, CSU predicted 10 named storms and 7 hurricanes.
Pacific hurricane
Documentation of Pacific hurricanes dates to the Spanish colonization of Mexico, when the military and missions wrote about "tempestades". In 1730, such accounts indicated an understanding of the storms. After observing the rotating nature of tropical cyclones, meteorologist William Charles Redfield expanded his study to include storms in the eastern North Pacific Ocean in the middle of the 19th century. Between June and October 1850, Redfield observed five tropical cyclones along "the southwestern coast of North America", along with one in each of the three subsequent years. In 1895, Cleveland Abbe reported the presence of many storms between 5° to 15°–N in the eastern Pacific, although many such storms dissipated before affecting the Mexican coast. Two years later, the German Hydrography Office "Deutsche Seewarte" documented 45 storms from 1832 to 1892 off the west coast of Mexico.
National Hurricane Center
The central office in Washington, which evolved into the National Meteorological Center and Weather Prediction Center (formerly known as the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center), assumed hurricane warning/advisory responsibility at that time. This responsibility passed to regional hurricane offices in 1935, and the concept of the Atlantic hurricane season was established to keep a vigilant lookout for tropical cyclones during certain times of the year. Hurricane advisories issued every six hours by the regional hurricane offices began at this time.
1850 Atlantic hurricane season
Attempts to catalog Atlantic hurricanes in the first half of the 19th century began as early as 1855, when Andrés Poey compiled information on just over 400 tropical cyclones from 1493 to 1855. However, Poey listed only three of the five or more hurricanes that developed in 1850. In his 1963 book, "Early American Hurricanes, 1492–1870", weather researcher David M. Ludlum discusses, in greater detail, three significant tropical cyclones that impacted the United States in 1850. Unusually, all three heavily impacted the northeastern states; Ludlum compares the season to 1954, in which three major tropical systems impacted the Eastern Seaboard. More traditional hurricane targets, such as Florida, were spared the brunt of seasonal tropical cyclone activity in 1850, while the atmosphere farther north was abnormally tropical. Newark, New Jersey, had its warmest—and one of its rainiest—summers on record at the time, owing to frequent nearby hurricanes and the influx of tropical air. Meteorological reports pertaining to the season were largely lost in a Smithsonian Institution fire in 1856, limiting what is known about hurricane activity in 1850. As the season falls outside the scope of the Atlantic hurricane database (1851 onward) and its associated reanalysis project, records are regarded as incomplete. Extant accounts of the storms in 1850 are chiefly based on private weather records and press reports, and only approximate storm tracks are known.
Hurricane Camille
In the 1960s, Atlantic hurricane names consisted of women's names which were reused every fourth year. The practice of retiring hurricane names was meant to be temporary, with the guideline that a name be retired for ten years. When 'Carla' was retired in 1961 it was replaced on the 1965 list with 'Carol', a name retired in 1954 when its namesake devastated New England. Since over a decade had passed, Carol was eligible for reuse. Carol entered the 1969 list, but scientists from the National Hurricane Research Laboratory (NHRL) asked the naming committee in January 1969 to permanently retire Carol, Edna, and Hazel since papers were still being written about the storms. The committee agreed but needed a replacement 'C' name. John Hope's daughter Camille was involved in an advanced science and math program in high school and had carried out a required independent research project. John Hope asked Dr. Banner Miller to mentor her in her investigation of hurricanes and long-term atmospheric trends. Miller was impressed by her project and suggested her name for the list. "We kept it quiet for many years", Camille said in a phone interview circa 2014.
List of historical tropical cyclone names
By 1950, tropical cyclones that were judged by the US Weather Bureau to have intensified into a tropical storm started to be assigned names. Storms were originally named in alphabetical order using the World War Two version of the Phonetic Alphabet. By 1952 a new phonetic alphabet had been developed and this led to confusion as some parties wanted to use the newer phonetic alphabet. In 1953, to alleviate any confusion, forecasters decided to use a set of 23 feminine names. After the 1953 Atlantic hurricane season, public reception to the idea seemed favorable, so the same list was adopted for the next year with one change; Gilda for Gail. However, after storms like Carol and Hazel got a lot of publicity during the 1953 season, forecasters agreed to develop a new set of names for 1955. However, before this could happen, a tropical storm was declared significant on January 2, 1955 and was named as Alice. The new set of names were developed and used in 1955 beginning with Brenda continuing through the alphabet to Zelda. For each season before 1960, a new set of names were developed. In 1960 forecasters decided to begin rotating names in a regular sequence and thus four alphabetical lists were established to be repeated every four years. The sets followed the example of the western Pacific typhoon naming lists and excluded names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. These four lists were used until 1972 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), replaced them with 9 lists designed to be used from 1972. In 1977, NOAA made the decision to relinquish control over the name selection by allowing a regional committee of the World Meteorological Organization to select the new sets of names which would contain male names and some Spanish and French names in order to reflect all the cultures and languages within the Atlantic Ocean. The World Meteorological Organization decided that the new lists of hurricane name would start to be used in 1979. Since 1979 the same lists have been used, with names of significant tropical cyclones removed from the lists and replaced with new names. In 2002 Subtropical Cyclones started to be assigned names from the main list of names set up for that year. In 2005 as all the names preselected for the season were exhausted, the contingency plan of using Greek letters for names had to be used. Since then there have been a few attempts to get rid of the Greek names, as they are seen to be inconsistent with the standard naming convention used for tropical cyclones and are considered generally unknown and confusing to the public. However the lists of preselected names for the year, are not expected to be used up frequently enough to warrant any change in the existing naming procedure and thus the Greek Alphabet will be used if the list of pre selected names should ever be used up again.
History of tropical cyclone naming
At the 22nd hurricane committee in 2000 it was decided that tropical cyclones that moved from the Atlantic to the Eastern Pacific basin and vice versa would no longer be renamed. Ahead of the 2000–01 season it was decided to start using male names, as well as female names for tropical cyclones developing in the South-West Indian Ocean. RSMC La Reunion subsequently proposed to the fifteenth session of the RA I Tropical Cyclone Committee for the South-West Indian Ocean during September 2001, that the basin adopt a single circular list of names. Along with the RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee, RSMC La Reunion also proposed to the session that a tropical cyclone have only one name during its lifetime. However, both of these proposals were rejected in favour of continuing an annual list of names and to rename systems when they moved across 90°E into the South-West Indian Ocean. During the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season the naming of subtropical cyclones restarted, with names assigned to systems from the main list of names drawn up for that year.
1960 Atlantic hurricane season
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1960. Storms were named Abby and Donna for the first time in 1960. Following the season, the name Donna was retired, replaced with Dora. Names that were not assigned are marked in .
The following table lists all of the storms that have formed in the 1960 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their duration, names, landfall(s) (in parentheses), damages, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low, and all of the damage figures are in 1960 USD.
1949 Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 15, 1949. However, tropical cyclogenesis did not begin until August 21, over two months after the start of the season. Overall, there were 16 tropical storms, seven of which strengthened into hurricanes. Three of these intensified into major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the modern day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS). Four hurricanes and three tropical storms made landfall during the season, causing 26 deaths and $59.8 million in damage. The last storm of the season, Tropical Storm Sixteen, dissipated on November 5, about 10 days before the official end of the season on November 15.
1965 Atlantic hurricane season
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1965. The name Betsy was later retired. Carol had been removed from the naming list for 10 years following Hurricane Carol of 1954. It was then retroactively retired because of the 1954 hurricane, not the storm in 1965. They were replaced with Blanche and Camille for use in the 1969 season. Names that were not assigned are marked in .
National Hurricane Center
The Jacksonville hurricane warning office moved to Miami, Florida, in 1943. Tropical cyclone naming began for Atlantic tropical cyclones using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet by 1947. In 1950, the Miami Hurricane Warning Office began to prepare the annual hurricane season summary articles. In the 1953 Atlantic season, the United States Weather Bureau began naming storms which reach tropical storm intensity with human names.
The National Hurricane Research Project, begun in the 1950s, used aircraft to study tropical cyclones and carry out experiments on mature hurricanes through its Project Stormfury. On July 1, 1956, a National Hurricane Information Center was established in Miami, Florida, which became a warehouse for all hurricane-related information from one United States Weather Bureau office. The Miami Hurricane Warning Office (HWO) moved from Lindsey Hopkins Hotel to the Aviation Building to the northwest on July 1, 1958. Forecasts within the hurricane advisories were issued one day into the future in 1954 before being extended to two days into the future in 1961, three days into the future in 1964, and five days into the future in 2001. The Miami HWO moved to the campus of the University of Miami in 1964, and was referred to as the NHC in 1965. The Miami HWO tropical cyclone reports were done regularly and took on their modern format in 1964.
Central Pacific Hurricane Center
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center uses traditional Hawaiian names for hurricanes that form within its regional sphere of jurisdiction. It has formed four lists of names to choose from. As soon as all the names are exhausted from the first list, it moves on to the second, then third, then fourth, then back to the first and so on. Unlike the name list in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, the names do not start at "A" every year. Four names have been retired, Iwa of 1982, Iniki of 1992, Paka of 1997 and Ioke of 2006. They were replaced by Io (which was later changed to Iona), Iolana, Pama and Iopa respectively. The next name to be used from the list is 'Akoni'.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
On July 1, 1956, a National Hurricane Information Center had become established in Miami, Florida which became a warehouse for all hurricane-related information from one office. The Miami Hurricane Warning Office (HWO) was moved from Lindsey Hopkins Hotel to the Aviation Building to the northwest on July 1, 1958. Forecasts for tropical cyclone movement were extended to two days in advance (at one day intervals) in 1961. The Miami HWO moved to the campus of the University of Miami in 1964, which is when tropical cyclone forecasts were extended to three days into the future, at one day intervals. The Miami HWO tropical cyclone reports were done regularly and took on their modern format in 1964. In 1970, NHC began analyzing tropical cyclone initial positions in real-time and added a 12‑hour forecast. Beginning in 1973, a portion of the National Meteorological Center (later renamed the Weather Prediction Center) gained advisory responsibility for dissipating inland tropical depressions. The World Meteorological Organization assumed control of the Atlantic hurricane naming list in 1977.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
The timing and naming of tropical cyclone advisories, watches, and warnings has changed over time. In 1958, tropical cyclone advisories were issued every six hours starting at 0400 UTC each day. During 1967, hurricane watches were used to designate areas where hurricane conditions were possible in the next 24 hours, while hurricane warnings indicated areas where the hurricane center should cross the coast. Small craft, gale, and storm warnings were issued for hurricanes not expected to make landfall. By 1987, the definition of tropical cyclone watches had changed to areas where gale or hurricane-force winds were possible within 36 hours, with warnings issued when gale or hurricane-force winds were expected within 24 hours. In 1987, gale watches/warnings were renamed tropical storm watches/warnings. In 1991, advisory timing shifted back to every six hours starting at 0330 UTC every day. In 1992, advisory timing changed to every six hours starting at 0300 UTC each day. The length of time used for watches and warnings changed again in 2010, with watches using a 48‑hour time frame and warnings using a 36-hour time frame.
1995 Atlantic hurricane season
Forecasts of hurricane activity are issued before each hurricane season by noted hurricane experts such as Dr. William M. Gray and his associates at Colorado State University (CSU) and the Weather Research Center (WRC). A normal season, as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has 12.1 named storms; of these, 6.4 reach hurricane strength; and 2.7 major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Additionally, the 1950–2000 CSU average for a normal season is 9.6 named storms, of these 5.9 reach hurricane strength, and 2.3 become major hurricanes.
History of tropical cyclone naming
During 1977 the World Meteorological Organization decided to form a hurricane committee, which held its first meeting during May 1978 and took control of the Atlantic hurricane naming lists. During 1978 the Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps ordered NOAA administrator Robert White to cease the sole usage of female names for hurricanes. Robert White subsequently passed the order on to the Director of NHC Neil Frank, who attended the first meeting of the hurricane committee and requested that both men’s and women’s names be used for the Atlantic. The committee subsequently decided to accept the proposal and adopted five new lists of male and female names to be used the following year. The lists also contained several Spanish and French names, so that they could reflect the cultures and languages used within the Atlantic Ocean. After an agreement was reached between Mexico and the United States, six new sets of male/female names were implemented for the Eastern Pacific basin during 1978. A new list was also drawn up during the year for the Western Pacific and was implemented after Typhoon Bess and the 1979 tropical cyclone conference.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
In 1978, the NHC's offices moved off campus to the IRE Financial Building. The hurricane warning offices remained active past 1983. Organizationally, the NHC left the aegis of the National Weather Service State Forecast Office in Miami in 1984, leaving the Southern Region and becoming its own national center, one of three in existence at that time. In 1988, NHC added a 36-hour point to their forecast. During the National Weather Service reorganization in the 1990s, the NHC was renamed the Tropical Prediction Center on October 1, 1995, and moved into a building on the campus of Florida International University. The Hurricane Specialists were grouped as a separate NHC unit under the Tropical Prediction Center, separating themselves from the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch. By 2001, tropical cyclone forecasts were extended from three to five days in advance, including forecast points for 96 and 120 hours. On October 1, 2010, the Tropical Prediction Center was renamed the NHC, and the group formerly known as the NHC became known as the Hurricane Specialists Unit (HSU).
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
The United States Congress passed a bill to authorize the establishment and operations of weather stations across the West Indies and Caribbean Sea on July 7, 1889. The ultimate outcome was the advent of the Weather Bureau in 1890, through the passing of the Organic Act which assigned the new organization to the Department of Agriculture. The September 1896 hurricane led to an expansion of the Weather Bureau hurricane network through the Caribbean Sea. The Spanish–American War led to the United States establishing a hurricane warning office in Kingston, Jamaica in 1898, before shifting to Havana, Cuba after the war's end in 1899. After the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, a hurricane warning office was established at New Orleans, Louisiana to deal with hurricane warnings in the Gulf of Mexico. The Hurricane Warning Service moved to Washington, D. C. in 1902. The use of radio by shipping, which began in 1905, added significantly more information for those tracking hurricanes. The first report from a hurricane was received in 1909, with the total of radio reports rising to 21,000 per hurricane season in 1935. Despite the issuance of hurricane watches and warnings, forecasting the path of tropical cyclones did not occur until 1920.
A hurricane warning program was established in 1935 and established regional offices in Jacksonville, Florida, Washington, D.C., San Juan, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Hurricane warning offices issued advisories at six hourly intervals for tropical cyclones, issuing warnings for storm and hurricane-force winds. The first aircraft reconnaissance of a hurricane (without penetrating the storm) was carried out in 1935 by Capt. Leonard Povey of the Cuban Army Air Corps. Although the United States Weather Bureau was encouraged by this flight to use aircraft to monitor hurricanes, a competing idea of using Coast Guard cutters to track hurricanes was put forth by Captain W. L. Farnsworth of the Galveston Commercial Association in the early 1930s. Farnsworth's "storm patrol bill" passed both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives on June 15, 1936. However, no Coast Guard cutters ever penetrated a full hurricane as part of this patrol and the idea of using aircraft was moth-balled until 1943.
The Jacksonville hurricane warning office moved to Miami, Florida in 1943, and a hurricane warning office was opened in Boston, Massachusetts. After World War II, the United States Navy and United States Air Force had separate warning centers for the military. In the case of tropical cyclones, the civilian and military warning agencies maintained close coordination. Tropical cyclone naming began for Atlantic tropical cyclones using the phonetic alphabet by 1947, switching to female names in 1953. Starting in 1950, the Miami Hurricane Warning Office began to prepare the annual hurricane season summary articles. Tropical cyclone track forecasts for one day in the future began in 1954. After the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season, efforts were made to enhance the hurricane reporting network along the coast by setting up a Cooperative Hurricane Reporting Network (CHURN) by supplying anemometers and barometers to members of the public which left no length of United States coastline along the Atlantic or Gulf coasts greater than uncovered.
Hurricane Maria
On April 11, 2018, at the 40th session of the Regional Association Hurricane Committee, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name "Maria" from its rotating name lists, due to the highly extensive amount of damage and loss of life it caused along its path, especially in Dominica and Puerto Rico, and it will never again be used to name an Atlantic hurricane. It will be replaced with "Margot" for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season."Siguiendo La Trayectoria del Huracán María Sobre Puerto Rico" (426 pages; Spanish), by Gilberto Rivera Santiago
Hurricane Noel
Due to the extensive damage and number of deaths from "Noel", the name was officially retired on May 13, 2008 by the World Meteorological Organization during its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, and will not be used again for any future North Atlantic hurricanes. It was replaced by "Nestor" of the Atlantic hurricane naming lists for the 2013 season. But because it was not used in that season, it could be used in the 2019 season.
Hurricane Vince
When Subtropical Storm Vince formed on 8 October, it was the earliest in the season that the twenty-first tropical or subtropical storm had ever developed, 38 days ahead of the previous record held by Tropical Storm Twenty-one of the 1933 season. Vince also marked the first time ever that more than 20 tropical/subtropical storms formed in an Atlantic season. Hurricane Vince was also the first named "V" storm in the Atlantic since naming began in 1950. Because the storm did not cause significant damage, the name "Vince" was not retired by the World Meteorological Organization.
1950 Atlantic hurricane season
This was the first season in the Atlantic hurricane database in which cyclones that attained at least tropical storm status were given names. The names used to name storms during the 1950 season were taken from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, which was also used in the 1951 and 1952 hurricane seasons before being replaced by female names in 1953. Names that were not assigned are marked in .
1975 Pacific hurricane season
These names were used for storms in 1975. It is the same list used in the 1971 season. This is the last time this list was used, as modern naming began in 1978.
1972 Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1972. Although 19 tropical cyclones developed, only seven of were named, below the 1950-2000 average of 9.6 named storms per season. Of the seven tropical or subtropical storms, three of them strengthened into a hurricane, which is also below average. None of the three hurricane became major hurricanes, which is Category 3 or greater on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Overall, the season was inactive, despite having a similar number of tropical waves as the previous season. The lack of activity was attributed to an El Niño – which causes below normal sea surface temperatures over the eastern Atlantic – and strong vertical wind shear. One subtropical storm and two hurricanes made landfall during the season and caused at least 137 fatalities and more than $2.1 billion in damage. The last storm of the season, Subtropical Storm Delta, became extratropical on November 7, about 23 days before the official end of hurricane season on November 30.
List of Atlantic hurricane records
Climatologically speaking, approximately 97 percent of tropical cyclones that form in the North Atlantic develop between the dates of June 1 and November 30 – dates which delimit the modern-day Atlantic hurricane season. Though the beginning of the annual hurricane season has historically remained the same, the official end of the hurricane season has shifted from its initial date of October 31. Regardless, on average once every few years a tropical cyclone develops outside the limits of the season; as of June 2018 there have been 89 tropical cyclones in the off-season, with the most recent being Tropical Storm Alberto in 2018. The first tropical cyclone of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, which formed on January 3, became the earliest forming tropical storm and hurricane after reanalysis concluded on the storm in December 2012. Hurricane Able in 1951 was initially thought to be the earliest forming major hurricane – a tropical cyclone with winds exceeding  – however following post-storm analysis it was determined that Able only reached Category 1 strength which made Hurricane Alma of 1966 the new record holder; as it became a major hurricane on June 8. Though it developed within the bounds of the Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Audrey in 1957 was the earliest developing Category 4 hurricane on record after it reached the intensity on June 27. However, reanalysis from 1956 to 1960 by NOAA downgraded Audrey to a Category 3, making Hurricane Dennis of 2005 the earliest Category 4 on record on July 8, 2005. The earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane, Emily, reached the highest intensity on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale on July 17, 2005.
1969 Pacific hurricane season
The 1969 Pacific hurricane season was an event in meteorology. It officially started on May 15, 1969, in the eastern Pacific and lasted until November 30, 1969. However, the first named storm, Ava, did not form until July 1, the latest date that the first named storm of a season formed. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
1900 Galveston hurricane
The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm include the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents and publications, the Galveston Flood. It is often referred to by Galveston locals as the Great Storm or the 1900 Storm.
1991 Perfect Storm
In its tropical cyclone report on the hurricane, the National Hurricane Center only referred to the system as "Unnamed Hurricane". The Natural Disaster Survey Report called the storm "The Halloween Nor'easter of 1991". The "perfect storm" moniker was coined by author and journalist Sebastian Junger after a conversation with NWS Boston Deputy Meteorologist Robert Case in which Case described the convergence of weather conditions as being "perfect" for the formation of such a storm. Other National Weather Service offices were tasked with issuing warnings for this storm in lieu of the typical NHC advisories. The OPC posted warnings on the unnamed hurricane in its "High Seas Forecasts". The National Weather Service State Forecast Office in Boston issued "Offshore Marine Forecasts" for the storm. Local NWS offices along the East coast covered the storm in their "Coastal Waters Forecasts".
History of tropical cyclone naming
On April 22, 2008 the newly established tropical cyclone warning centre in Jakarta, Indonesia named its first system: Durga, before two sets of Indonesian names were established for their area of responsibility ahead of the 2008–09 season. At the same time the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, merged their three lists into one national list of names. The issue of tropical cyclones being renamed when they moved across 90°E into the South-West Indian Ocean, was subsequently brought up during October 2008 at the 18th session of the RA I Tropical Cyclone Committee. However, it was decided to postpone the matter until the following committee meeting so that various consultations could take place. During the 2009 Tropical Cyclone RSMCs/TCWCs Technical Coordination Meeting, it was reaffirmed that a tropical cyclone name should be retained throughout a system's lifetime, including when moving from one basin to another, to avoid confusion. As a result, it was proposed at the following year's RA I tropical cyclone committee, that systems stopped being renamed when they moved into the South-West Indian Ocean from the Australian region. It was subsequently agreed that during an interim period, cyclones that moved into the basin would have a name attached to their existing name, before it was stopped at the start of the 2012–13 season. Tropical Cyclone Bruce was subsequently the first tropical cyclone not to be renamed, when it moved into the South-West Indian Ocean during 2013-14. During March 12, 2010, public and private weather services in Southern Brazil, decided to name a tropical storm Anita in order to avoid confusion in future references. A naming list was subsequently set up by the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center with the names Arani, Bapo and Cari subsequently taken from that list during 2011 and 2015.
1948 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1948 Atlantic hurricane season featured the first tropical cyclone before the month of June since 1940. The season officially began on June 15, 1948, and lasted until November 15, 1948. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. There were 10 tropical cyclones; six storms attained hurricane status, and four storms intensified into major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Operationally, it was believed that a weak tropical disturbance formed over the southeast Bahamas in May and moved northwest into the Georgia coast near Savannah. This system was later excluded from HURDAT. The seventh tropical cyclone was not operationally considered a tropical cyclone, but was later added to HURDAT.
Hurricane hunters
The 1943 Surprise Hurricane, which struck Houston, Texas, during World War II, marked the first intentional meteorological flight into a hurricane. It started with a bet.
List of retired Australian region cyclone names
The practice of retiring significant names was started during 1955 by the United States Weather Bureau in the Northern Atlantic basin, after hurricanes Carol, Edna, and Hazel struck the Northeastern United States and caused a significant amount of damage in the previous year. Initially the names were only designed to be retired for ten years after which they might be reintroduced, however, it was decided at the 1969 Interdepartmental hurricane conference, that any significant hurricane in the future would have its name permanently retired. Several names have been removed from the Pacific naming lists for various other reasons than causing a significant amount of death/destruction, which include being pronounced in a very similar way to other names and political reasons.
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Tropical cyclone naming
When a tropical depression intensifies into a tropical storm to the north of the Equator between 140°W and 180°, it is named by the CPHC. Four lists of Hawaiian names are maintained by the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane committee, rotating without regard to year, with the first name for a new year being the next name in sequence that was not used the previous year. The names of significant tropical cyclones are retired from the lists, with a replacement name selected at the next Hurricane Committee meeting.
Hurricane Harvey
On April 11, 2018, at the 40th session of the RA IV hurricane committee, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name "Harvey" from its rotating name lists, due to the extensive damage and loss of life it caused along its track, particularly in the state of Texas, and its name will never again be used for another Atlantic hurricane. It will be replaced with "Harold" for the 2023 season.
1943 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1943 Atlantic hurricane season marked the first deliberate reconnaissance aircraft flights into tropical cyclones. The season officially lasted from June 16 to October 31, which was, at the time, considered the most likely period for tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic Ocean. A total of ten storms from 1943 are listed in the Atlantic hurricane database, and an eleventh system that affected Florida and Georgia has been identified as a probable tropical depression. The first system of the year, dubbed the "Surprise hurricane", caused severe damage throughout Texas and Louisiana in June, partially because information about its approach was censored in the fray of World War II; the storm caused 19 deaths and $17 million in damage. A major hurricane in mid-August produced hurricane-force winds in Bermuda, and several other tropical cyclones throughout the year resulted in strong winds there. In September, a hurricane impacted the western Gulf Coast of the United States, then a tropical storm struck the Mid-Atlantic. The two storms resulted in $419,000 and $20,000 in damage, respectively; one death was attributed to the latter system. In mid-October, a strong hurricane resulted in flooding and damage to crops throughout the Caribbean; after becoming post-tropical, it contributed to moderate impacts across Nova Scotia.
1971 Atlantic hurricane season
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1971. Names that were not assigned are marked in . Storms were named Beth, Kristy and Laura for the first time in 1971. No names were retired after the 1971 season. Kristy, Rachel, Sandra, and Wallis are currently being used in the East Pacific lists.
This is a table of the storms in 1971 and their landfall(s), if any. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but are still storm-related. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical or a wave or low.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
In 1959, the Project was moved to Miami and collocated with the Miami hurricane forecast office. The Department of Commerce leased two DC-6 aircraft and received a B-57 jet from the Air Force so that NHRP could continue to carry out airborne experiments on hurricanes. The combination of research project, forecast center, and aircraft facility was dubbed the "National Hurricane Center" (NHC). During the 1960s, while NHRP continued to carry out research flights, the Project also began to create computer models of hurricane circulation, formulated a statistical track program (NHC-64), wrote a manual on hurricane forecasting, and evaluated the accuracy of track forecasts. Starting with Hurricane Esther (1961), NHRP was heavily involved with Project Stormfury, the U. S. Government's experiment in hurricane modification. Late in 1964, the Project was renamed the National Hurricane Research Laboratory in recognition of it becoming a permanent institution within the Weather Bureau. This presaged the creation of the Environmental Research Laboratories the next year.
Hurricane Elena
Hurricane Elena has a multifaceted legacy; it is remembered not only for its severe impacts, but also for its unpredictability and the wide extent of pre-storm preparations. Due to its notoriety, the name "Elena" was retired from the cyclical list of Atlantic hurricane names in the spring of 1986. Consequently, it will never again be used for an Atlantic hurricane. The name was replaced by "Erika", which was first used during the 1991 season in which would be itself retired after the 2015 season.
The state of Florida received a federal Major Disaster Declaration on September 12. Franklin, Levy, Manatee, and Pinellas counties—where the storm left 5,000 individuals without work—became eligible for federal aid after President Ronald Reagan visited the state and determined that residents in those areas would benefit from assistance such as temporary housing, low-interest loans for rebuilding efforts, and monetary grants. Disaster centers were opened in those four counties as centralized locations for federal, state, and volunteer agencies to operate relief programs. President Reagan later included Hillsborough, Wakulla, and Dixie counties, bringing the total number of Florida counties eligible for federal aid to seven. The deadline for residents of all seven counties to apply for either state or federal assistance was set for November 12. Several major corporations—including Texaco, Exxon, and J.C. Penney—contacted customers in the affected areas and offered to make special arrangements for their monthly payments if they had been financially affected by the storm. While only a small number of customers took advantage of the assistance, the companies' actions were met with highly positive feedback.
National Hurricane Center
The first hurricane warning service was set up in the 1870s from Cuba with the work of Father Benito Viñes. After his death, hurricane warning services were assumed by the United States Signal Corps and United States Weather Bureau over the next decade, first based in Jamaica in 1898 and Cuba in 1899 before shifting to Washington, D.C. in 1902.
List of retired Pacific hurricane names
The practice of retiring significant names was started during 1955 by the United States Weather Bureau in the Atlantic basin, after hurricanes Carol, Edna, and Hazel struck the Northeastern United States and caused a significant amount of damage in the previous year. Initially the names were only designed to be retired for ten years after which they might be reintroduced, however, it was decided at the 1969 Interdepartmental hurricane conference that any significant hurricane in the future would have its name permanently retired. Several names have been removed from the Pacific naming lists for various reasons other than for causing a significant amount of death/destruction, which include being pronounced in a very similar way to other names and for political reasons.
1982 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1982 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1982, and lasted until November 30, 1982, and was a well below average season. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. Only six storms formed during this hurricane season: five named storms (this was the record for the smallest number of named cyclones in the Atlantic basin since naming began in 1950, until the following year (1983) when only 4 named storms formed) and an unnamed subtropical storm (no subtropical storms were named between 1974 and 2001). The season only produced two hurricanes (record low since 1944) one of which reached major hurricane status. The season started early with Hurricane Alberto forming on the first day of the season. Alberto threatened the Southwestern Florida coast as a tropical storm, causing twenty-three fatalities in Cuba. The next storm, a subtropical storm, formed in June and affected the same area as Alberto, causing $10 million in damage.
Hurricane Iwa
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center retired the name "Iwa" subsequent to the storm and replaced it with "Io". However, in 2007, the CPHC revised the four rotating lists of tropical cyclone names and replaced the name "Io" with "Iona" before it could be used. Iwa was the first retired hurricane in the Central Pacific since the modern system of using Hawaiian naming began in the early 1980s, and it remains one of only four to be retired as of 2015.
History of tropical cyclone naming
However, there has been controversy over the names used at various times, with names being dropped for religious and political reasons. Female names were exclusively used in the basins at various times between 1945 and 2000, and were the subject of several protests. At present tropical cyclones are officially named by one of eleven meteorological services and retain their names throughout their lifetimes. Due to the potential for longevity and multiple concurrent storms, the names reduce the confusion about what storm is being described in forecasts, watches and warnings. Names are assigned in order from predetermined lists once storms have one, three, or ten-minute sustained wind speeds of more than , depending on which basin it originates in. Standards vary from basin to basin, with some tropical depressions named in the Western Pacific, while a significant amount of gale-force winds are required in the Southern Hemisphere. The names of significant tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Australian region are retired from the naming lists and replaced with another name, at meetings of the World Meteorological Organization's various tropical cyclone committees.
Tropical Storm Alice (1953)
From 1950 to 1952, Atlantic hurricanes were named using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. Before the 1953 season, officials changed the system to using female names; hence, Alice was the first in the new format. Male names would not be used until 1979. The name "Alice" was later reused twice in 1954 for a hurricane in June and December, as well as for a hurricane in 1973.
1995 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1995 Atlantic hurricane season was a hyperactive Atlantic hurricane season that is generally considered to be the start of an ongoing era of high-activity tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic basin. It is tied with 1887, 2010, 2011, and 2012 for having the third most number of named storms. The season produced twenty-one tropical cyclones, nineteen named storms, as well as eleven hurricanes and five major hurricanes. The season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30, dates which conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones develop in the Atlantic basin. The first tropical cyclone, Hurricane Allison, developed on June 2, while the season's final storm, Hurricane Tanya, transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on November 1.
1979 Atlantic hurricane season
Since 1953, the NHC and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used a naming list that contained only female names. Throughout the years, feminist groups criticized this practice, especially in the aftermath of hurricanes Eloise in 1975 and Belle in 1976. However, in May 1978, NOAA administrator Richard A. Frank announced by a list with male and female names would be used in the eastern Pacific Ocean that year and in the Atlantic by 1979, after submitting a proposal to the World Meteorological Organization. Initially, male names were scheduled to be introduced in the 1981 season. Storms were named Ana, Bob, Claudette, David, Frederic and Henri for the first (and only, in the cases of David and Frederic) time in 1979. The name Elena was previously used in the 1965 season, and the name Gloria was used in 1976. The names not retired from this list were used again in the 1985 season. Names that were not assigned are marked in .
List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
This is a cumulative list of previously used tropical cyclone (tropical storm and hurricane) names which have been permanently removed from reuse in the North Atlantic region.
The naming of North Atlantic tropical cyclones is currently under the oversight of the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization. This group maintains six alphabetic lists of names, with one list used each year. This normally results in each name being reused every six years. However, in the case of a particularly deadly or damaging storm, that storm's name is retired, and a replacement starting with the same letter is selected to take its place. The decision whether to remove a name in a given season is made at the annual session of the Hurricane Committee in the spring of the following year.
1953 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1953 Atlantic hurricane season was the first time an organized list of female names was used to name Atlantic storms. It officially began on June 15, and lasted until November 15, although activity occurred both before and after the season's limits. The season was active with fourteen total storms, six of which developed into hurricanes; four of the hurricanes attained major hurricane status, or a Category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
History of tropical cyclone naming
In January 1960, a formal naming scheme was introduced for the South-West Indian Ocean by the Mauritius and Madagascan Weather Services. with the first cyclone being named Alix. Later that year, as meteorology entered a new era with the launching of the world's first meteorological satellite TIROS-1, eight lists of tropical cyclone names were prepared for use in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins. In the Atlantic it was decided to rotate these lists every four years, while in the Eastern Pacific the names were designed to be used consecutively before being repeated. During 1963, the Philippine Weather Bureau adopted four sets of female Filipino nicknames ending in "ng" from A to Y for use in its self-defined area of responsibility. Following the international practise of naming tropical cyclones, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology decided at a conference in October 1963 that they would start naming tropical cyclones after women at the start of the 1963–64 cyclone season. The first Western Australian cyclone was subsequently named Bessie on January 6, 1964. In 1965, after two of the Eastern Pacific lists of names had been used, it was decided to start recycling the sets of names on an annual basis like in the Atlantic.
1958 Atlantic hurricane season
Before the season started, the United States Weather Bureau office in Miami began setting up a teleprinter to distribute hourly advisories to newspapers and the American Red Cross. The hurricane season officially began on June 15, and lasted until November 15. When the season started, the Lakeland Frost Warning Service sent four employees to assist the Miami Weather Bureau. The Hurricane Hunters flew daily to investigate potential storms in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In addition, there was a set of radars from Texas to Maine to track storms. Beginning in 1958, the Weather Bureau predicted the change in tide due to a storm with the assistance of a tide specialist. During the season, a reporter – daughter of Weather Bureau director Gordon Dunn – flew into Hurricane Daisy, becoming the first woman to fly into a hurricane. Utilizing radars along the East Coast of the United States, the Weather Bureau tracked both Hurricanes Daisy and Helene for , which was the first such occurrence of that feat.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
The basic concept of a hurricane season began during 1935, when dedicated wire circuits known as hurricane circuits began to be set up along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, a process completed by 1955. It was originally the time frame when the tropics were monitored routinely for tropical cyclone activity, and was originally defined as from June 15 through October 31. Over the years, the beginning date was shifted back to June 1, while the end date was shifted to November 15, before settling at November 30 by 1965. This was when hurricane reconnaissance planes were sent out to fly across the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico on a routine basis to look for potential tropical cyclones, in the years prior to the continuous weather satellite era. After regular satellite surveillance began, hurricane hunter aircraft flew only into areas which were spotted first by satellite imagery. Starting in 1958, a cooperative hurricane reporting network composed of over 100 unpaid observers would send observations in real-time during the hurricane season to their local Weather Bureau offices. The spacing of the network was roughly between sites, and the locations would report wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, and pressure.
1982 Pacific hurricane season
This is the first year that named storms forming between the dateline and 140°W were given names from the Hawaiian language. Previous to this year, names and numbers from the western Pacific's typhoon list were used.
2018 Pacific hurricane season
The following list of names was used for named storms that form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean during 2018. Retired names, if any, will be announced by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 2019. The names not retired from this list will be used again in the 2024 season. This is the same list used in the 2012 season. The name Vicente was used for the first time this year, while the names Willa and Xavier were both used once in 1962 and 1992, respectively.
Tropical cyclone naming
Within the Eastern Pacific Ocean, there are two warning centers that assign names to tropical cyclones on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization when they are judged to have intensified into a tropical storm with winds of at least . Tropical cyclones that intensify into tropical storms between the coast of Americas and 140°W are named by the National Hurricane Center (NHC/RSMC Miami), while tropical cyclones intensifying into tropical storms between 140°W and 180° are named by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC/RSMC Honolulu). Significant tropical cyclones have their names retired from the lists and a replacement name selected at the next World Meteorological Organization Hurricane Committee.
1947 Atlantic hurricane season
This was the first season in which the Air Weather Service began assigning names to tropical cyclones using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. However, the use of these names were limited to internal communications between weather centers and aircraft, not in public bulletins. The names are also not listed in HURDAT. Names that were not assigned are marked in . The following names were used:
1946 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1946 Atlantic hurricane season resulted in no fatalities in the United States. The season officially began on June 15, 1946, and lasted until November 15, 1946. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. However, the first storm, developed in the Gulf of Mexico on June 13, while the final system dissipated just offshore Florida on November 3. There were seven tropical storm; three of them attained hurricane status, while none intensified into major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. This had not occurred since 1940 and would not again until 1968. Operationally, the fifth tropical storm, which existed near the Azores in early October, was not considered a tropical cyclone, but was added to HURDAT in 2014.
History of tropical cyclone naming
The practice of using names to identify tropical cyclones goes back several centuries, with storms named after places, saints or things they hit before the formal start of naming in each basin. Examples of such names are the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane (also known as the "San Felipe II" hurricane) and the 1938 New England hurricane. The system currently in place provides identification of tropical cyclones in a brief form that is easily understood and recognized by the public. The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named tropical cyclones and anticyclones between 1887 and 1907. This system of naming fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired, until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific. Over the following decades formal naming schemes were introduced for several tropical cyclone basins, including the North and South Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Pacific basins as well as the Australian region and Indian Ocean.
1928 Okeechobee hurricane
In 1953, the United States Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) started naming hurricanes by human female names until 1978. That year both gender names began to be used after control over naming was relinquished to the World Meteorological Organization. It was not until 1960 that Puerto Rico stopped naming hurricanes after saints. Two cyclones have been given both women's and saint's names: Hurricane Betsy (Santa Clara, August 12, 1956) and Hurricane Donna (San Lorenzo, September 5, 1960).
1948 Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 15, 1948. However, tropical cyclogenesis began on April 15, about two months before the official start of the season. There was a total of ten tropical storms, six of which strengthened into hurricanes. Further, four of the six hurricanes deepened into major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Of the nine tropical disturbances detected operationally, five struck the United States with winds of or greater, while the other tropical systems affected islands, remained over the open ocean, or affected the country with winds below tropical storm intensity. Three hurricanes made landfall in the United States, while the three other storms with winds of at least largely remained at sea. Collectively, the storms of this season left around $28.8 million in damage and 112 fatalities.
Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project
A significant amount of new data for systems between 1851 and 1886 became available after a major basin-wide reanalysis in 1996, a project led by Jose Fernandez-Paratagas with the collaboration of Henry Diaz. The new data was constructed using old newspaper articles and the hemispheric weather map series. Hurricane histories for individual states had been constructed by the 1990s as well, which proposed new storms and increased the knowledge of tropical cyclones already in the database. Due to this profusion of relevant information not included in HURDAT, and evolving definitions for tropical and subtropical cyclones over the decades, the project was started around 2000 to update the official database. Since then, the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set has been utilized to check for older ship reports which were either not utilized nor available to previous researchers.
Hurricane Camille
In 1969 the naming conventions for hurricanes were not strictly controlled as they are today. There were only three requirements: the name had to be female (male names were not used at that time), the names had to remain in alphabetical order, and the name could not have been retired.
Hurricane Allen
As a result of Allen's impact's the name Allen was retired from the Atlantic naming list by the World Meteorological Organization and will not be used for a future Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced with the name Andrew when the list of names was reused during the 1986 Atlantic hurricane season.
When Allen reached Category 5 intensity on August 5, it became the earliest Category 5 storm ever recorded. This record stood until Hurricane Emily surpassed it on July 16, 2005. Allen is one of three Atlantic hurricanes to reach Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale on three separate occasions, the others being Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Isabel. Allen also produced the fifth-lowest minimum pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin at 899 mbar (hPa) and was the strongest known hurricane in the basin, in terms of pressure, since 1935. Until then, it was the second strongest hurricane by pressure in the Atlantic Basin, but was since pushed down to fifth, and no hurricane has achieved winds in this basin since then. It remains the most intense storm ever in August. Allen spent nearly 3 days as a Category 5 storm, initially the longest stretch of any previous Atlantic hurricane on record. However, a reanalysis of the 1932 Cuba hurricane showed that it spent 3 hours longer at Category 5 intensity than Allen, and Hurricane Irma in 2017 also spent slightly more time as a Category 5 hurricane than Allen. Five typhoons have spent longer as Category 5 storms, including most recently Karen and Nancy in the early 1960s.
List of United States hurricanes
The list of United States hurricanes includes all tropical cyclones officially recorded to have produced sustained winds of greater than 74 mph (118 km/h) in the United States, which is the minimum threshold for hurricane intensity. The list, which is sorted by U.S. state, begins in 1851 with the start of the official Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT), as provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division; the data from 1951 to 1979 is subject to change, due to the lack of official wind speed estimates during the time period. Since 1851, a total of 296 North Atlantic hurricanes produced hurricane-force winds in 19 states along the Atlantic coast. Some of these storms may not have made a direct landfall (i.e. remained just offshore) while producing hurricane-force winds on land; some of them may have weakened to a tropical storm or became extratropical before landfall but produced hurricane conditions on land while still a hurricane and some of them made landfall in an adjacent state but produced hurricane conditions over multiple states. This list does not include storms that only produced tropical storm conditions on land in the United States.
1947 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1947 Atlantic hurricane season was the first Atlantic hurricane season to have tropical storms labeled by the United States Air Force. The season officially began on June 16, 1947, and ended on November 1, 1947. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. However, the first tropical cyclone developed on June 13, while the final system was absorbed by a cold front on December 1. There were 10 tropical storms; 5 of them attained hurricane status, while two became major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or higher on the modern day Saffir–Simpson scale. Operationally, the third tropical storm was considered two separate tropical cyclones, resulting in the storm receiving two names. The eighth tropical storm went undetected and was not listed in HURDAT until 2014.
List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
Since the formal start of naming during the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season, an average of one Atlantic storm name has been retired each year, though many seasons (most recently 2014) did not have any names retired. The deadliest storm to have its name retired was Hurricane Mitch, which caused over 10,000 fatalities when it struck Central America during October 1998. The costliest storms were hurricanes Katrina in August 2005 and Harvey in August 2017; each storm struck the U.S. Gulf Coast, causing $125 billion in damage, much of it from flooding. The most recently retired storm names are Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
The National Hurricane Center became a tropical cyclone warning center in 1956, and assumed many of the functions it has today by 1965. The National Hurricane Research Project, begun in the 1950s, used aircraft to study tropical cyclones and carry out experiments on mature hurricanes through its Stormfury project. Forecasts within the hurricane advisories were issued one day into the future in 1954 before being extended to two days into the future in 1961, three days into the future in 1964, and five days into the future in 2001. From the 1960s through the 1980s, work from the various regional hurricane offices was consolidated into the National Hurricane center. Its name was changed to the Tropical Prediction Center in 1995, before reassuming its National Hurricane Center name in 2010. Tropical cyclone forecasting is done nowadays using statistical methods based on tropical cyclone climatology, as well as methods of numerical weather prediction where computers use mathematical equations of motion to determine their movement.
Tropical cyclone
The practice of using names to identify tropical cyclones goes back many years, with systems named after places or things they hit before the formal start of naming. The system currently used provides positive identification of severe weather systems in a brief form, that is readily understood and recognized by the public. The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge who named systems between 1887 and 1907. This system of naming weather systems subsequently fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired, until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific. Formal naming schemes have subsequently been introduced for the North and South Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Pacific basins as well as the Australian region and Indian Ocean.
1989 Atlantic hurricane season
Forecasts of hurricane activity are issued before each hurricane season by noted hurricane experts such as Dr. William M. Gray and his associates at Colorado State University (CSU). A normal season as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has eleven named storms, of which six reach hurricane strength and two of those become major hurricanes. On May 31, 1989, the CSU forecast that there would be seven named storms, four of which would intensify into a hurricane; there was no prediction of the number of major hurricanes. Prior to the season, the Weather Research Center (WRC) in Houston, Texas also issued a forecast, which called for ten named storms and six hurricanes.
List of Category 4 Pacific hurricanes
Between 1970 and 1975, advisories for systems in the eastern Pacific basins were initiated by the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center (EPHC) as part of the National Weather Service (NWS) office in San Francisco, California. At that time, the advisories released were written in cooperation with the United States Navy Fleet Weather Center in Alameda and the Air Force Hurricane Liaison Officer at the McClellan Air Force Base. Following the move of the hurricane center to Redwood City in 1976, track files were created and altered by Arthur Pike and were later re-modified following the release of a study in 1980. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) extended its authority to the EPHC in 1988, and subsequently began maintaining the tracks.
1963 Atlantic hurricane season
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1963. Storms were named Ginny and Helena for the first time in 1963. The name Flora was later retired. Names that were not assigned are marked in .
1900 Atlantic hurricane season
Tropical cyclogenesis began with the development of the first hurricane on August 27 well west of Cape Verde. It was the strongest storm of the season, peaking as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of . This was abnormally late, as the average date of development of the first tropical storm between 1944 and 1996 was July 11. In comparison, the latest date of the first tropical storm during the satellite era was Hurricane Anita on August 29, 1977. During the month of September, which is the climatological peak of hurricane season, three additional tropical cyclones formed, two of which were hurricanes. After the third hurricane dissipated on September 23, activity went dormant for nearly 2 weeks, until the fifth tropical storm formed near the Lesser Antilles on October 4. As it was becoming extratropical, a sixth tropical cyclone developed in the Bay of Campeche on October 10. The final system formed in the eastern Caribbean Sea, crossed Hispaniola, and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone between Bermuda and the East Coast of the United States on October 28.
National Hurricane Center
Tropical cyclone forecasting uses statistical methods based on tropical cyclone climatology, as well as methods of numerical weather prediction where computers use mathematical equations of motion to determine their movement. The World Meteorological Organization continues to create and maintain the annual hurricane naming lists. Naming lists use a six-year rotation, with the deadliest or most infamous storm names retired from the rotation. The current acting director of the National Hurricane Center is Edward Rappaport following the retirement of Richard Knabb on May 15, 2017. Rappaport was succeeded by Kenneth Graham on April 1, 2018.
History of tropical cyclone naming
As the dual sex naming of tropical cyclones started in the Northern Hemisphere, the NZMS considered adding ethnic Pacific names to the naming lists rather than the European names that were currently used. As a result of the many languages and cultures in the Pacific there was a lot of discussion surrounding this matter, with one name, "Oni," being dropped as it meant "the end of the world" in one language. One proposal suggested that cyclones be named from the country nearest to which they formed; however, this was dropped when it was realized that a cyclone might be less destructive in its formative stage than later in its development. Eventually it was decided to combine names from all over the South Pacific into a single list at a training course, where each course member provided a list of names that were short, easily pronounced, culturally acceptable throughout the Pacific and did not contain any idiosyncrasies. These names were then collated, edited for suitability, and cross-checked with the group for acceptability. It was intended that the four lists of names should be alphabetical with alternating male and female names while using only ethnic names. However, it was not possible to complete the lists using only ethnic names. As a result, there was a scattering of European names in the final lists, which have been used by the Fiji Meteorological Service and NZMS since the 1980–81 season. During October 1985 the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center had to request an additional list, after the names preselected for that season was used up. As a result, the names Xina, York, Zelda, Xavier, Yolanda, Zeke were subsequently added to the naming lists, while a contingency plan of using the Greek alphabet if all of the names were used up was introduced.
1954 Atlantic hurricane season
The hurricane season officially began on June 15, when the United States Weather Bureau in Miami, Florida began 24‑hour operations. The agency, under the direction of Grady Norton had access to 43 other weather stations across the Atlantic basin. Norton died during the season from a stroke while tracking Hurricane Hazel. Additionally, a group of Hurricane Hunters planes were put on standby for the season, able to be flown out into storms and collect data. During the season, there were eight named storms, as well as an unnamed hurricane and a tropical depression. The season officially ended on November 15, although an unnamed tropical storm formed a day later. In addition, Tropical Storm Alice developed on December 31, the latest a tropical cyclone has developed in the calendar year.
1950 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1950 Atlantic hurricane season was the first year in the Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT) that storms were given names in the Atlantic basin. Names were taken from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, with the first named storm being designated "Able", the second "Baker", and so on. It was an active season with sixteen tropical storms, with eleven of them developing into hurricanes. Six of these hurricanes were intense enough to be classified as major hurricanes—a denomination reserved for storms that attained sustained winds equivalent to a Category 3 or greater on the present-day Saffir–Simpson scale. One storm, the twelfth of the season, was unnamed and was originally excluded from the yearly summary, and three additional storms were discovered in re-analysis. The large quantity of strong storms during the year yielded, prior to modern reanalysis, what was the highest seasonal accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) of the 20th century in the Atlantic basin; 1950 held the seasonal ACE record until broken by the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. However, later examination by researchers determined that several storms in the 1950 season were weaker than thought, leading to a lower ACE than assessed originally.
Hurricane Opal
The origins of Hurricane Opal were linked using satellite imagery and synoptic analyses to a tropical wave that left the western coast of Africa on September 11. Ten days later, the disturbance had crossed the central Atlantic and had reached the Lesser Antilles. Continuing to track westward, the disturbance showed little signs of organization before entering the western Caribbean Sea on September 23. There, the wave became entangled with a broad area of low-pressure east of Nicaragua, and the combined system drifted west-northwestward toward the Yucatán Peninsula. Even then, the disturbance lacked any significant development. However, a burst of thunderstorm activity occurred near the storm's center on September 27, prompting the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to declare the system a tropical depression at 18:00 UTC that day. At the time, the depression was centered 80 mi (130 km) south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.
The primordial depression meandered across the Yucatán Peninsula during the three days following tropical cyclogenesis due to the lack of dominant steering currents. Despite remaining over land for an extended period, the depression developed organized rainbands, and ships in the region reported weather conditions that were suggestive of a stronger system. As a result, the NHC upgraded the disturbance to tropical storm intensity at 12:00 UTC on September 30 while the storm was over the north-central coast of Yucatán; this classification resulted in the tropical cyclone being named "Opal", which also made it the first Atlantic storm to be given a name starting with the letter O. Over the next two days, Opal would enter the Gulf of Mexico and track slowly west-southwestward into the Bay of Campeche. There, the storm strengthened into a hurricane at 12:00 UTC on October 2. Shortly afterward, a primitive eye began to form. At the same time, a strong trough tracking across the United States caused Opal to slowly turn northeastward.
Hurricane Dog (1950)
Before scientific reexamination reduced its winds, Hurricane Dog was listed as the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, tied with Hurricanes Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005; following reanalysis in 2012, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane also met this distinction. Only Hurricanes Camille in 1969 and Allen in 1980 were stronger, peaking at . (However, Camille was later found to have been somewhat weaker than originally estimated, with top winds of .) During the 1950, 1951, and 1952 seasons, Atlantic hurricanes were named using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. However, Hurricane Dog was referred to as "the great hurricane in the central Atlantic" in newspaper reports, and its name was seldom used. Operationally, hurricanes were not referred to by name until 1952.
Hurricane Fox (1952)
In the early 1950s, Atlantic tropical cyclones were named via the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. Hurricane Fox of 1952 was the final Atlantic tropical cyclone to be designated with this naming system, and a female list of tropical cyclone names was utilized in the 1953 Atlantic hurricane season. After the stronger 1917 Pinar del Río hurricane, Hurricane Fox was Cuba's second most intense landfall until Hurricane Michelle struck the island in 2001. Originally, the 1917 hurricane was believed to have been a Category 3 hurricane prior to the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis, which made Fox the second Category 4 landfall after the 1932 Cuba Hurricane. At the time, Fox was the fourth most intense hurricane to strike Cuba in terms of atmospheric pressure; only the 1917, 1924, and 1932 storms were stronger at one point in their life spans.
History of Atlantic hurricane warnings
The history of Atlantic tropical cyclone warnings details the progress of tropical cyclone warnings in the north Atlantic Ocean. The first service was set up in the 1870s from Cuba with the work of Father Benito Viñes. After his death, hurricane warning services were assumed by the United States Signal Corp and United States Weather Bureau over the next few decades, first based in Jamaica and Cuba before shifting to Washington, D.C.. The central office in Washington, which would evolve into the National Meteorological Center and the Weather Prediction Center, assumed the responsibilities by the early 20th century. This responsibility passed to regional hurricane offices in 1935, and the concept of the Atlantic hurricane season was established in order to keep a vigilant lookout for tropical cyclones during certain times of the year. Hurricane advisories issued every six hours by the regional hurricane offices began at this time.
National Hurricane Center
Beginning in 1973, the National Meteorological Center duties (renamed the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center; renamed for a second time in 2013) gained advisory responsibility for tracking and publicizing inland tropical depressions. The World Meteorological Organization assumed control of the Atlantic hurricane naming list in 1977. In 1978, the NHC's offices moved off the campus of the University of Miami across U.S. Highway 1 to the IRE Financial Building. Male names were added into the hurricane list beginning in the 1979 season. The hurricane warning offices remained active past 1983.
2004 Atlantic hurricane season
Tropical cyclogenesis began at the end of July, with the development of Hurricane Alex on July 31. However, it did not become a named storm until the following day, which was the fifth-latest start since the 1952 season. August was an unusually active month, with eight named storms, including Alex, Bonnie, Charley, Danielle, Earl, Frances, Gaston, and Hermine. This broke the record for the most named storms in the month of August set in 1933 and 1995. This new record was tied in 2012. On average, there are only three tropical storms and one to two hurricanes in August. Of the eight systems that month, five became hurricanes and three strengthened further into major hurricanes. A total of five tropical cyclones developed in September, including the most intense system of the season, Hurricane Ivan. Activity decreased further in October, with the formation of only two systems, Tropical Storm Matthew and Subtropical Storm Nicole. The season then went dormant for over a month and a half, until Tropical Storm Otto developed on November 29. Otto was the final tropical cyclone of the season and degenerated into a remnant low pressure on December 3.
Tropical cyclone naming
Within the North Atlantic Ocean, tropical or subtropical cyclones are named by the National Hurricane Center (NHC/RSMC Miami) when they are judged to have intensified into a tropical storm with winds of at least . There are six lists of names which rotate every six years and begin with the first letters A—W used, skipping Q and U, and alternating between male and female names. The names of significant tropical cyclones are retired from the lists, with a replacement name selected at the next World Meteorological Organization's Hurricane Committee meeting. If all of the names on a list are used, storms are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet.
Hurricane Beta
When Tropical Depression Twenty-six was upgraded to Tropical Storm Beta, it was the first time that the second letter of the Greek alphabet was used for a tropical cyclone. Upon being named, it was the first time that an Atlantic hurricane season had produced 24 tropical or subtropical cyclones. Operationally, Beta was the record-breaking 13th hurricane, surpassing the 12 hurricanes produced in 1969. In the post-season analysis by the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Cindy was upgraded to a hurricane, thus making Beta the 14th hurricane of 2005. The name was not retired by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 2006, as the hurricane committee determined it "was not practical to 'retire into hurricane history' a letter in the Greek Alphabet." It remains on the auxiliary list of names in the event that another Atlantic hurricane season produces more than 21 named storms.
Meteorological history of Hurricane Luis
The meteorological history of Hurricane Luis spanned sixteen days between August 27 to September 11, 1995. The storm originated from an area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave on August 26. The following day, the low became sufficiently organized to be classified as a tropical depression, while tracking general westward. By August 29, the depression intensified into a tropical storm and was given the name "Luis" by the National Hurricane Center. Luis attained hurricane status the following day as an eye began to develop. On September 1 the cyclone intensified into a major hurricane—a storm with winds of 111 mph (178 km/h) or higher—and further strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane later that day.
List of retired Pacific hurricane names
Within the Eastern Pacific basin the naming of tropical cyclones started in 1960, with four sets of female names initially designed to be used consecutively before being repeated. In 1965 after two lists of names had been used, it was decided to return to the top of the second list and to start recycling the sets of names on an annual basis. In 1977 after protests by various women's rights groups, NOAA made the decision to relinquish control over the name selection by allowing a regional committee of the WMO to select new sets of names. The WMO selected six lists of names which contained male names and rotated every six years. They also decided that the new lists of hurricane name would start to be used in 1978 which was a year earlier than the Atlantic. Since 1978 the same lists of names have been used, with names of significant tropical cyclones removed from the lists and replaced with new names.
1956 Atlantic hurricane season
In the middle of November, a weakening cold front produced a low pressure area and later tropical storm on November 19. Based on ship reports, peak winds were estimated at 45 mph (75 km/h), making the system a tropical storm. The system drifted westward, dissipating on November 21.
The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1956. All names used for the first time in 1956.
1899 San Ciriaco hurricane
The hurricane earned its name by striking Puerto Rico on August 8, the Roman Catholic feast day devoted to Saint Cyriacus ("San Ciriaco" in Spanish). This was a common practice prior to the introduction of standardized hurricane names – for example, the 1867 San Narciso hurricane, the 1928 San Felipe hurricane, and the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane were also named after the feast day on which they occurred.
1943 Surprise Hurricane
The 1943 Surprise hurricane was the first hurricane to be entered by a reconnaissance aircraft. The first tracked tropical cyclone of the 1943 Atlantic hurricane season, this system developed as a tropical storm while situated over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on July 25. The storm gradually strengthened while tracking westward and reached hurricane status late on July 26. Thereafter, the hurricane curved slightly west-northwestward and continued intensifying. Early on July 27, it became a Category 2 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale and peaked with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h). The system maintained this intensity until landfall on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas late on July 27. After moving inland, the storm initially weakened rapidly, but remained a tropical cyclone until dissipating over north-central Texas on July 29.
Calendar of saints
Before the advent of standardized naming of tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic basin, tropical storms and hurricanes that affected the island of Puerto Rico were informally named after the Catholic saints corresponding to the feast days when the cyclones either made landfall or started to seriously affect the island. Examples are: the 1780 San Calixto hurricane a.k.a. the Great Hurricane of 1780 (the deadliest in the North Atlantic basin's recorded history; named after Pope Callixtus I a.k.a. Saint Callixtus, whose feast day is October 14), the 1867 San Narciso hurricane (named after Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem, feast day October 29), the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane (the deadliest in the island's recorded history; Saint Cyriacus, August 8), the 1928 San Felipe hurricane (the strongest in terms of measured wind speed; Saint Philip, father of Saint Eugenia of Rome, September 13), and the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane (Saint Cyprian, September 26).