Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta … Sound Familiar?
The record breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season ran through the Greek alphabet in a hurry after moving through the standard list of 21 alphabetized storm names. The incredibly busy season made it all the way to Iota in the Greek Alphabet! What we didn’t know at the time was that this would be the last time the Greek Alphabet would be used to name tropical cyclones.
The World Meteorological Organization decided that if the 2021 Hurricane Season produces more than 21 storms, the names will come from a supplemental list of storm names. This means no more Greek alphabet!
Why the Change? The WMO gave several reasons, but one of the most obvious to us is that two of the Greek Alphabet names were retired after the 2020 season. Eta and Iota caused significant damage and it would be tough to go through the Greek Alphabet without having all of the Greek letters available for use. The retiring of storms that cause catastrophic damage is commonplace at the end of each hurricane season.
The decision to stop using the Greek Alphabet was also made because the novelty distracted from the storm information and storm impacts. Several of the letters also sound familiar, which brought confusion. In addition, the translation of certain letters brought issues in some languages.
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