HOLT, Fla., May 10, 2021—The use of the Greek alphabet as hurricane names after the main list is exhausted is out.

The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization establishes the naming system of tropical hurricanes around the world, including those used during the Atlantic hurricane season each year.

After last year’s record-breaking season, the WMO decided to end the use of the Greek alphabet as hurricane names.

The 2020 season was so active that WMO’s 21-name rotating list was exhausted and the Greek alphabet was used for only the second time since it was first used in 2005. 

Instead, the WMO created a supplemental list of A-to-Z names to be used in lieu of the Greek alphabet in March.

Atlantic tropical system names repeat every six years unless a storm is so deadly or costly that its name is retired from future lists. 

The WMO issued a news release March 17 to do just that.

The names Dorian from the 2019 season, and Laura, Eta and Iota from 2020 were retired from the rotating list of hurricane names because of the death and destruction caused by these storms.

In total, 93 names have been retired from the Atlantic list since 1953 when storms began to be named under the current system.