A look at the hurricane names for 2023

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - March is rapidly coming to a close, which means hurricane season is now just two months away. No official hurricane season forecasts have been released yet, but that will change in the coming weeks.

Hurricane season in the Atlantic officially starts on June 1st and comes to a close on November 30th. The peak of hurricane season occurs between mid-August and mid-October.

The list of names for the Atlantic Basin in 2023.(WSFA 12 News)

This year features a list of names very similar to the names back in 2017. That’s because the lists of names are reused every six years, with any retired names being replaced.

The list of names is: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harold, Idalia, Jose, Katia, Lee, Margot, Nigel, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, and Whitney.

Since 1954 there have been 96 names retired.(WSFA 12 News)

And speaking of retired names, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially retired the names Fiona and Ian. This comes after the death and destruction caused by both storms during 2022′s hurricane season.

The list of retired names now sits at 96. Every letter except “V” has at least one retired name. The letter “I” has the most retired names with 14 after Ian was added.

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