How Do Hurricanes Get Their Names?

This week brought news that the name Sandy was being retired as a potential name to be given to future hurricanes.  But what does it mean to "retire" a name?  Well it all starts with the chart below:



This shows the list of potential names that could be used to name tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean for the upcoming years.  These are the only lists of names that are used, each one being used every six years.  For example, the list of names from 2012 will again be used in 2018. 

All the names were chosen by the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane committee.  Each list has an equal number of both male and female names.  You may notice some names you've rarely heard in the United States.  That's because the committee set out to include names that are common not only to English speakers, but Spanish and French speakers as well. 

Once a tropical cyclone reaches tropical storm status (winds of at least 39 mph) it is assigned a name.  The first tropical storm of the season will be assigned the "A" name, the next the "B" name, and so forth.  The names alternate between male and female, so you'll never have two storms of the same gender back to back.  If there are so many storms in one year that all the names on the list are used up, names from the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc) are used until the end of that year. 

As we all know, some storms end up causing much more devastation than others.  These are the ones that leave deep emotional scars and are still talked about years later.  To avoid insensitivity and confusion, each year the same committee that picked the names meets to decide if any storms from the previous year were significant enough that their name should be retired and replaced with another.  The committee has done this 77 times just in the Atlantic, including names like Andrew, Rita, Camille, and Katrina.  Sandy was the only name retired this year and it will be replaced by Sara beginning in 2018.