World Meteorological Organization Hurricane Committee retires Dorian, Laura, Eta, Iota

Published by BBN Staff at March 19, 2021

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Posted: Friday, March 19, 2021. 1:34 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: The coming hurricane seasons will see four names retired from the rotating lists of Atlantic tropical cyclone names because of the death and destruction they caused.

Dorian, used in 2019, and Laura, Eta and Iota, used in 2020, will never again be used for hurricane names by order of the Hurricane Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which met this week virtually. The Committee serves region four of the WMO, covering North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season saw nine named storms between May and July and two major hurricanes in November for the first time ever, for a total of 31 named storms. The season was so active that WMO’s 21-name rotating list was exhausted and the Greek alphabet was used for only the second time (the first time was in 2005).

The Committee has decided to start the 2021 season on June 1 as usual, despite the recent trend of named storms forming earlier than that.

Atlantic tropical cyclone name lists repeat every six years unless a storm is so deadly or costly that its name is retired from future lists, which has happened 93 times since the first list went into use in 1953.

The Hurricane Committee agreed on the retirement of names from 2020, along with 2019, because this was not on the agenda of last year’s Hurricane Committee due to the unfolding COVID-19 crisis.

Evan Thompson, Jamaica’s head of meteorology and president of the WMO regional association, noted how cyclones can overturn years of socio-economic development in a matter of hours and emphasized the importance of cutting-edge forecasts and warnings and regional coordination and cooperation to reduce loss of life and property.

Category Five Dorian struck the northwestern Bahamas and caused US$3.4 billion in damage; it will be replaced by Dexter in 2025.

Category Four Laura made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, and was responsible for 47 direct deaths in the United States and Hispaniola, and more than US$19 billion in damage. Leah will replace Laura on the list of names in 2026.

Hurricanes Eta and Iota both made landfall less than two weeks apart during November 2020 in the same area of the Nicaraguan coast just south of Puerto Cabezas. The two powerful tropical cyclones caused extensive flooding in Nicaragua, Honduras and other adjacent Central American countries, resulting in at least 272 fatalities and damage losses of more than US$9 billion.

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