2016 Cyclones Retirement

[Alyono]

as not retiring Nina (though an argument can be made that since Nina was not retired, NO storm should ever be retired)

What are you referring to? The 2016 supertyphoon Nina did result in both Nina (its name on the only-Philippines list) and Nock-ten (its name on the international western Pacific list) retired.


The 1957 Hurricane Nina that resulted in high winds in Honolulu didn't have its name officially retired, but that's a bit irrelevant since its not on the lists presently used in the Central Pacific, anyway.

The 1975 typhoon that caused huge loss of life in China because of a dam collapse is also moot since the western Pacific names have changed since then. And was China itself even using names for typhoons in 1975? If people in China weren't thinking of the storm as having the name Nina, there would be no reason for them to ask for its retirement.

And retirement has never been worldwide -- it only pertains to the particular "basin". So there is nothing that would prevent a storm near Australia from being named Katrina in the future -- or one in the Atlantic being named Nina, Tracy, or Marcia.

everyone should know I was talking about 1975 Nina. If that is not retired, no storm should ever be retired

[1900hurricane]

The problem with Nina '75 is that I believe hardly anyone outside of China was aware of the devastation it caused there until well after the fact (I'm having trouble tracking down the source for this though). In the 1975 JTWC Tropical Cyclone Report, there are no mentions of any impact Nina had on China.

[CrazyC83]

When will we know which names of the 2016 season are retired?

Probably early next week. The meeting goes from tomorrow to Sunday, so I would think Monday the press release will come out.

Matthew is virtually certain, while Earl and Otto are the next most likely but by no means guaranteed.

[CrazyC83]

Going through the reports, for the first time ever it appears Haiti is actually making a retirement case. They are calling for the retirement of Matthew (per their report), although Cuba, the Bahamas and the US also have reasonable cases.

Death toll in Haiti is 546, with 128 missing.

Also, a damage figure for the Bahamas is not available, but if it was over $1 billion there, then Matthew will be the first storm on record to be a billion-dollar disaster in four separate countries (Sandy came close).

[cycloneye]

Matthew and OTTO will be retired Martin and Owen will be the new names to replace them.

 https://twitter.com/JohnMoralesNBC6/status/845956117092073473

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

As an onomastician I think they did a pretty good job with their replacements this year. Martin and Owen are easy to pronounce (at least for English speakers) and dissimilar enough from both the names they are replacing and other names on the Atlantic lists and the Eastern Pacific same year list.

Owen does seem like an odd choice for a Spanish speaking country like Costa Rica to suggest as a replacement, though, and I suppose that country would have been the one requesting Otto's retirement.

[AnnularCane]

I would have preferred Mark or Malcolm, but oh well. Owen is nice though.

[HurricaneRyan]

I'm shocked Otto got retired, but not Earl.

Was Otto worse than I thought?

[cycloneye]

 https://twitter.com/Cyclonebiskit/status/846013969647239168

[Hammy]

Do the names have to be requested by the countries affected in order to be retired?

[CrazyC83]

Do the names have to be requested by the countries affected in order to be retired?

Generally yes, although France did request Felix and Noel in 2007 (along with Dean) which barely impacted its islands.

Otto was a significant storm for Costa Rica especially, and they don't get hit often.

[galaxy401]

I'm not too surprised with Earl staying. Mexico is usually more strict with that. I have to admit I didn't expect Otto to be retired but there we go.

Matthew was obvious.

[tatertawt24]

Surprised about Otto being retired, although it definitely "Earned" it for scientific reasons, being not only the latest landfall date in the Atlantic basin but being a RI'ing cat 3 on top of that. It sounds more like a record 2005 would have set.

[CrazyC83]

Surprised about Otto being retired, although it definitely "Earned" it for scientific reasons, being not only the latest landfall date in the Atlantic basin but being a RI'ing cat 3 on top of that. It sounds more like a record 2005 would have set.

Costa Rica almost never experiences hurricanes, so the impact there would be enough for them to make a retirement case.