ORLANDO, Fla. – While the 2023 hurricane season has not officially started, we’ve already seen the first storm of the year.
The National Hurricane Center determined that a storm that formed off the Northeast U.S. in mid-January should be classified as a subtropical storm.
The storm itself will go nameless, but it will do down as the first one of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.
Forecasters at Colorado State University released their predictions in April for the 2023 hurricane season. The agency expects 13 named storms, six of which are predicted to become hurricanes, with two of those becoming major. Major hurricane status is category 3 (111 mph winds or greater).
Below is a list of storm names for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season:
- Arlene
- Bret
- Cindy
- Don
- Emily
- Franklin
- Gert
- Harold
- Idalia
- Jose
- Katia
- Lee
- Margot
- Nigel
- Ophelia
- Philippe
- Rina
- Sean
- Tammy
- Vince
- Whitney
There are six lists of names that are used in a rotation and recycled every six years.
The World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane committee officially retired Ian and Fiona from the rotating list of names. Hurricane names are recycled unless the storm is “so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity,” according to the WMO.
Hurricane Ian, of course, was a large and powerful Category 4 hurricane that brought devastating impacts to Southwest Florida. Significant impacts were also felt well inland, with extreme flooding, including along the St. Johns River. Ian was responsible for 150 direct and indirect deaths and over $112 billion in damage in the U.S.
According to the Climate Prediction Center, El Niño is favored to develop by the peak of hurricane season this year.
La Niña’s three-year run officially ended in March and the CPC designated ENSO-neutral conditions. ENSO, or El Niño Southern Oscillation, is the recurring climate pattern that involves changes in the temperature of the water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.
La Niña, in hurricane season typically promotes a higher-than-normal frequency of storms. El Niño on the other hand tends to promote a quieter season in terms of number of storms.
Hurricane season starts June 1.
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