Say goodbye and good riddance to Dorian, Laura, Eta and Iota.
Those hurricane names were permanently retired Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization, following the tradition of avoiding the repetition of names of particularly destructive storms. Added to the list were Dexter and Leah.
Also ended was the use of the Greek alphabet to name storms for long seasons after authorities exhaust the list of name chosen for that year. That happened in last year’s horrific storm season, when a record-breaking number of storms required the use of nine Greek letters, from Alpha through Iota.
The widespread use of proper names for hurricanes dates to World War II, when Army and Navy meteorologists took to assigning storms the names of wives and girlfriends. Before that, hurricanes were typically named for the places they hit or for significant dates, such as the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 that destroyed the Florida Keys railroad.
The practice of using proper names was formalized after the war, with responsibility for choosing them given to a committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The exclusive use of female names ended in 1978. Greek names have been used for occasions when the year’s assigned proper names are used up, as happened last season.
Since 1953, 93 names have been retired.
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