Page 14
Bye Alpha, Eta: Greek alphabet
ditched for hurricane names
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Elsa
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Julian
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
2021 STORM NAMES
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
AP SCIENCE WRITER
With named storms coming earlier and more often in
warmer waters, the Atlantic hurricane season is going through
some changes with meteorologists ditching the Greek alpha-
bet during busy years.
But the Atlantic hurricane season will start this year on June
1 as traditionally scheduled, despite meteorologists discuss-
ing the idea of moving it to May 15.
A special World Meteorological Organization committee
ended the use of Greek letters when the Atlantic runs out of
the 21 names for the year, saying the practice was confusing
and put too much focus on the Greek letter and not on the
dangerous storm it represented. Also, in 2020 with Zeta, Eta
and Theta, they sounded so similar it caused problems.
The Greek alphabet had only been used twice in 2005 and
nine times last year in a record-shattering hurricane season.
Starting this year, if there are more than 21 Atlantic storms,
the next storms will come from a new supplemental list
headed by Adria, Braylen, Caridad and Deshawn and ending
with Will. There's a new back-up list for the Eastern Pacific
that runs from Aidan and Bruna to Zoe.
The committee also retired the names of 2019s Dorian,
2020's Laura, Eta and Iota because they caused so much
damage, a routine decision. Dorian will be replaced with
Dexter for 2025 and Laura will be replaced by Leah in 2026.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NOAA
Hurricane Dorian passed over Florida on Sept. 6, 2019, after wrecking havoc on the
Bahamas and Puerto Rico.
PHOTO BY SCOTT
KEELER/TAMPA
BAY TIMES/ZUMA
PRESS/TNS
Water splashes
against the seawall
at St. Pete Beach
as squalls from
Hurricane Eta move
through Pinellas
County, on Nov. 11,
2020.
A part of a roof was held up against power lines in the
Beach Manor community in Venice after a powerful wind
from Hurricane Eta,
