2023 hurricane season begins: What names will storms have this year?
Hurricane names FILE PHOTO: What will hurricanes be named this year? (Svetlana Borisova/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
June 1 marks the beginning of the 2023 hurricane season and the National Hurricane Center is prepared with the list of names it will be using when a storm becomes a hurricane.
The NHC started naming storms in 1953. But the names now come from the World Meteorological Organization, which maintains and updates a list that is recycled in a six-year rotation.
The names are reused unless they are used on a storm that was “so deadly or costly that the future use of its name for a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity,” according to the NHC.
The names for 2023 are as followed:
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harold
Idalia
Jose
Katia
Lee
Margot
Nigel
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney
If there are more than 21 hurricanes this year, the NHC will then use a list of alternate names that have already been approved by the WMO.
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In this September 1900 file photo, a large part of the city of Galveston, Texas, is reduced to rubble after being hit by a surprise hurricane Sept. 8, 1900. (AP Photo/File)