We’re just over 100 days away from the start of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and this year’s official list of storm names is out.
Each year, the National Hurricane Center moves through an alphabetical list of names that are attributed to the storms that reach tropical storm or hurricane status. When there are too many named storms in a season for the English alphabet to suffice, the National Hurricane Center pivots to a supplemental list of names.
If this year’s list looks familiar, it’s because, aside from two new names, it was recycled from 2018. Francine and Milton will replace Florence and Michael, both of which were retired after they were assigned to major hurricanes that hit the U.S. coast in 2018, causing catastrophic damage.
The 2024 names
- Alberto
- Beryl
- Chris
- Debby
- Ernesto
- Francine
- Gordon
- Helene
- Isaac
- Joyce
- Kirk
- Leslie
- Milton
- Nadine
- Oscar
- Patty
- Rafael
- Sara
- Tony
- William
La Niña to return
El Niño — the warm surface water pattern in the eastern Pacific Ocean that creates hurricane-busting wind shear in the Atlantic — is expected to disappear later this spring.
And by August, cold-water La Niña conditions are expected to return to the Pacific, accompanied by less Atlantic wind shear, increasing the chances that tropical storms and hurricanes will form.