How Are Hurricanes Named? The Identification of Helene and Milton

Two major hurricanes have made landfall in recent weeks – Hurricane Helene in Georgia and the Carolinas and Hurricane Milton in Florida. 

Just as the names Katrina or Harvey may elicit memories of a catastrophic natural weather event, Helene and Milton may come to be more synonymous with the storm than any of the people to bear their names. 

So how are these natural disasters named, and why are these storms given an identifier based on human titles? 

According to the World Meteorological Organization, “Naming tropical cyclones has proven to be the fastest way to communicate warnings and raise public awareness and preparedness. Assigning names to tropical cyclones makes tracking and discussing specific storms more straightforward, especially when multiple storms are active simultaneously.” 

The organization said names were originally based on their latitude and longitude but were often subject to error and difficult to remember. 

According to the release, the National Hurricane Center introduced women’s names as tropical storms in 1953 and men’s names in 1979. 

The organization lists four categories as consideration on which names to use: short length, easy to pronounce, appropriate in different languages and uniqueness to the region. 

Storms are named when they still are tropical storms, with some emerging as hurricanes. They follow an alphabetical format, with each storm taking a letter – four tropical storms were sandwiched between Helene and Milton. 

“Once it has the correct structure, wind speed and pressure,” said Sam Kuffel, meteorologist at Milwaukee’s CBS affiliate, “then they can determine that it’s not a tropical depression, it’s a tropical storm. It’s more so defining and organizing – once it becomes a tropical storm, then it gets its name.” 

A tropical storm becomes a hurricane at 74 mile-per-hour winds, according to Kuffel – hurricanes and tropical storms are both named but the hurricanes become more known because of their propensity to cause damage. 

There currently exists 21-name lists that cycle through every six years, meaning a Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton could make landfall again in 2030, unless the National Weather Service decides to retire their use due to the severe impact. 

The names are decided by the World Meteorological Organization, according to Kuffel. 

Katrina and Harvey were both retired due to the significance of the storms – 31 other names have been retired since Katrina in 2005. Additionally, the naming excludes the letters Q, U, V, Y and Z. 

A particularly active year necessitates more names than the 21-name alphabetical list – Kuffel said historically they transitioned to the Greek alphabet for naming storms. Recently, the World Meteorological Organization introduced an alternative list of names in case of exhaustion. 

While hurricanes are known by their names more than any other catastrophic weather-related events, some receive names from less official sources. Kuffel said that The Weather Channel and AccuWeather name winter storms, but there’s no specific threshold for their names. 

In addition to winter storms, hurricanes sometimes touch down in Wisconsin – significantly more than a hurricane might. But tornadoes aren’t named in the way of hurricanes or typhoons, or even a winter storm. Instead, Kuffel said they’re remembered by who they affect. 

“We’ve had two really devastating tornadoes in Wisconsin,” said Kuffel. “It’s always referred to as the Barneveld tornado or the Oakfield tornado – mainly people remember it for the place that it hits.” 

Hurricanes typically receive more media coverage due to their deadly combination of wind and rain. These names gain acclaim across the nation and world as they strike the areas of the nation most vulnerable. 

“I think it’s a pretty good system,” said Kuffel. “I do wish they would have more names so we’re not getting, every six years, a Hurricane Sam or Hurricane Bill – both on the list. It’d be cool to mix it up to a 10-year cycle, but otherwise it’s a good way to remember the storm and impacts that it had by naming it the way they do.”