Ida Retired as Hurricane Name

The World Meteorological Organization announced this week the name Ida will never be used for hurricanes again. Hurricane names are pre-determined by a rotating list, but when a storm is particularly devastating, the name can be retired from those lists so it is not used again in the future.

WMO #Hurricane Committee has retired #Ida from the rotating lists of names because of the death and destruction it caused in USA in Aug/Sept 2021.Imani will instead be used.Names are used to communicate storm warnings and to alert people about hazards.https://t.co/xZkyjOcXqS pic.twitter.com/DGvRV2HQOG
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) April 27, 2022

The WMO says Ida will be retired, "because of the death and destruction caused by the category 4 hurricane in the United States of America in 2021." The statement from the WMO went on to add, "Ida was the most devastating storm of the season. It peaked as a category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) that caused severe to catastrophic damage in southeastern Louisiana. Ida later became an extratropical low that caused heavy rain and deadly flooding in the northeastern United States. Ida is responsible for 55 direct fatalities and 32 indirect fatalities in the United States. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) estimated that Ida’s wind, rain, storm surge and tornadoes caused a total of $75 billion in damage in the United States." That makes this the fifth costliest storm in the United States, and explains why the WMO decided to retire the name. Remember there are different lists of names used in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Since we started naming storms in 1953, 94 names have been retired from the Atlantic basin list. The names go in alphabetical order and (now) alternate genders, so when a name is retired, a new name beginning with the same letter and of the same gender that is not being used in any other ocean basin must be added to the list to replace it. Imani is the name chose to replace Ida on future lists. These lists rotate every six years, so we won't see Imani until 2027.

It goes beyond just this one storm, though. "I" names have been retired more often than names of any other letter of the alphabet. Ida makes the twelfth I name to be retired; behind that there have been nine C names and nine F names that have been retired. Here is the list of names an pronunciations that will be used for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season which officially starts June 1:

Alex AL-leks

Bonnie BAH-nee

Colin KAH-lihn

Danielle dan-YELL

Earl URR-ull

Fiona fee-OH-nuh

Gaston ga-STAWN

Hermine her-MEEN

Ian EE-an

Julia JOO-lee-uh

Karl KAR-ull

Lisa LEE-suh