When it comes to retired hurricane names, the 'I's have it
One hundred tropical storm names have been retired by the World Meteorological Organization in the last 70 years, but one letter beats them all by far. Here’s why.
Satellite imagery captured lightning flashing within the growing convection of Tropical Storm Isaias on Oct. 7 as the storm continued to strengthen.
As AccuWeather meteorologists track Isaias, they have noted that some of the most notorious tropical storms in history have begun with the letter "I." Between 2020 and 2022, Iota, Ida and Ian all wreaked havoc and left behind death and destruction in the United States. Now Isaias appears destined to do the same.
Since 1954, 100 tropical storm names have been retired in the Atlantic through 2025. Retirement occurs when storms reach a certain threshold and are considered too deadly and costly to remain on the hurricane season naming list.
Fourteen storms beginning with the letter "I" (including Iota 2020, a name which is technically a letter of the Greek alphabet) have been retired. That accounts for a significant number compared to the runner-up, "F," which has only 10 retired storms.
The storm names are eventually replaced if the storm becomes deadly or costly enough "that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity," according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Why is the letter I the most commonly retired Atlantic hurricane name?
Why have more storms starting with the letter "I" been retired than any other letter? It's mostly a coincidence, since retirement doesn't have hard-and-fast rules, and instead relies on human interpretation of a storm's effects on people. The first letter of a storm's name isn't tied to a specific time of year.
Most recently retired "I" storm was in 2022
The names Beryl, Helene, and Milton were retired in 2024, and Melissa was discontinued in 2025 after devastating Jamaica. The last "I" storm to be retired was Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Bruce Hickey, 70, walks along the waterfront littered with debris, including shrimp boats, in the mobile home park where he and his wife Kathy have a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy's mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Hurricane Ian made landfall on Sept. 27, 2022, on Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province as a Category 3 hurricane. The hurricane then set its sights on the United States, making landfall the next day as a Category 4 hurricane in Lee County, Florida.
The storm was responsible for 149 fatalities, making it the deadliest hurricane in Florida since 1935. Wind gusts reached well beyond 100 mph in some cases, including a gust of 128 mph in Grove City. Damages from Ian cost over $112 billion in the United States alone, becoming Florida’s costliest hurricane in history.
How are storms named?
Forecasters use six rotating lists of names to identify storms annually in the Atlantic. According to the World Meteorological Organization, storms are assigned names in part to help communicate storm warnings and raise awareness about the life-threatening risks they pose.
Hurricanes have been given various types of names dating back to the 1800s. But in 1953, the new International Phonetic Alphabet was introduced to name storms. According to the NHC, this was the year that the United States started using female names for storms. That process remained in place until 1978, when male names were added to the East Pacific storm names list. In 1979, a rotating list of male and female names was used in the Atlantic.
On each of the six lists of names that are rotated every sixth Atlantic hurricane season, you’ll never see a Quincy, Ursula or Zachary.
"The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are just not common letters that names begin with," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.
The lack of names beginning with those letters explains why they don’t appear on the list of Atlantic tropical cyclones -- but the Eastern Pacific does use X, Y and Z.
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