The National Hurricane Center has been crafting hurricane name lists since 1953. And up until 1979, the hurricane names were only female. Now, the list incorporates male names, too, alternating between male and female.
This year is a “male” year – in that the first name on the list is male. Next year, the list will start with a female name.
The storms are also named alphabetically in chronological order, which means the first named storm starts with “A” and the next, “B,” and so on and so forth.
There are a few letters that are not included in the list. Those include Q, U, X, Y, and Z.
The National Hurricane Center uses six lists of names that get swapped out between the years. The names are retired only after a truly devastating storm.
This year’s list:
- Alex
- Bonnie
- Colin
- Danielle
- Earl
- Fiona
- Gaston
- Hermine
- Ian
- Julia
- Karl
- Lisa
- Matthew
- Nicole
- Otto
- Paula
- Richard
- Shary
- Tobias
- Virginie
- Walter