Florida, United States.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) hurricane committee announced on Wednesday that it had withdrawn from the list of naming the tropical cyclones of the Atlantic Ocean as Dorian (2019) and Laura, Eta and Iota (2020) due to death and destruction they left in their wake.
The four names have been removed from the list after a two-day meeting of the WMO Hurricane Committee, the competent authority for North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The work of the committee “is critical to ensuring coordination between nations long before the next storm threatens the population,” said Ken Graham, director of the US National Hurricane Center.
Hurricanes do not understand international borders. We all face similar dangers from tropical systems. The effects of a single storm can affect several countries, so it is essential that we have a plan, coordinate our efforts and identify the problems and problems found. share best practices, ”he added.
During the annual hurricane season beginning June 1, storms are assigned male and female names in alphabetical order. Last year started with Arthur and Bertha.
Storms are named to make them easier to spot in warning messages.
The names are checked by the (WMO) and the list is reused every six years, but if a hurricane is particularly devastating, the name will be withdrawn and replaced.
The list uses 21 of the 26 letters of the alphabet due to the difficulty of finding easily identifiable Q, U, X, Y, and Z in English, Spanish, French, and Dutch, languages spoken in the affected Atlantic and Caribbean regions.
Dexter will replace Dorian on the list of names; Leah will replace Laura. If there have been more storms than mentioned in the list, such as in 2005 and 2020, the Greek alphabet has been used.
However, the WMO said on Wednesday that the Greek alphabet will be replaced with an additional list of names.
“It is a source of distraction when it comes to warning of dangers and storms that can also cause confusion,” said WMO.
A total of 93 names have been removed from the lists used for the Atlantic basin since 1953, when the current storm naming system came into use.
The record-breaking 30 Atlantic hurricanes in 2020 caused at least 400 deaths and $ 41 billion in damage.