Irene is retired, replaced with Irma

[HURAKAN]

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories201 ... irene.html

[CrazyC83]

About the most expected announcement. No other names retired it appears.

[Hurricanehink]

Irma? Weak. I would've gone with something prettier and more modern. But oh well, chances are Irma will get retired in six years

[HURAKAN]

I like Irma, short and easy to pronounce. That's what's all about!

[CrazyC83]

Chances are Irma won't last long at this rate either. But we may run out of I names soon...

Isaac is the only original I name left, and he comes up this year. (Florence is also the only original F name left coming up this year!) Florence could be a peak season storm seeing as we shouldn't get that far into the alphabet this year if forecasts are right. Isaac might be a late season storm.

[Hurricanehink]

True. I'm actually a bit surprised Lee wasn't retired, considering it caused $1.6 billion in damage. I guess that alone isn't enough for retirement anymore, as Hurricane Dolly in 2008 also did $1 billion in damage without being retired. For what it's worth, the last time a hurricane was retired for doing less than $1.6 billion in damage in the United States was Elena in 1985, which caused $1.25 billion. I am excluding Lili and Isidore, because they both were damaging in the Caribbean. So, having done the research, I suppose it's not that surprising Lee wasn't retired.

[CrazyC83]

True. I'm actually a bit surprised Lee wasn't retired, considering it caused $1.6 billion in damage. I guess that alone isn't enough for retirement anymore, as Hurricane Dolly in 2008 also did $1 billion in damage without being retired. For what it's worth, the last time a hurricane was retired for doing less than $1.6 billion in damage in the United States was Elena in 1985, which caused $1.25 billion. I am excluding Lili and Isidore, because they both were damaging in the Caribbean. So, having done the research, I suppose it's not that surprising Lee wasn't retired.

Much of that damage was while Lee was a remnant low as well. That is $1.25B in 1985 or current dollars?

[Hurricanehink]

True. I'm actually a bit surprised Lee wasn't retired, considering it caused $1.6 billion in damage. I guess that alone isn't enough for retirement anymore, as Hurricane Dolly in 2008 also did $1 billion in damage without being retired. For what it's worth, the last time a hurricane was retired for doing less than $1.6 billion in damage in the United States was Elena in 1985, which caused $1.25 billion. I am excluding Lili and Isidore, because they both were damaging in the Caribbean. So, having done the research, I suppose it's not that surprising Lee wasn't retired.

Much of that damage was while Lee was a remnant low as well. That is $1.25B in 1985 or current dollars?

1985 dollars. But, much of Allison's damage was after the NHC discontinued advisories, and similarly, the damage was attributed to Lee by the media.

[JonathanBelles]

What kind of name is Irma? I've never heard of anyone named Irma, and it sort of sounds like a bad grunt when I say it lol

[HURAKAN]

What kind of name is Irma? I've never heard of anyone named Irma, and it sort of sounds like a bad grunt when I say it lol

Irma is a common name used in Hispanic countries. It's of Germanic origins and means "universal"

[grentz7721]

I can't believe Irene got retired despite it was a category 1 storm.

[Hurricanehink]

Irma was a weak tropical storm in the 1978 Atlantic hurricane season that affected the Azores.

[Florida1118]

Why is it being used again then?

[senorpepr]

:uarrow: Why is it being used again then?

It was never retired.

[CrazyC83]

I can't believe Irene got retired despite it was a category 1 storm.

It goes to show even low-category storms can be very devastating. In the last three seasons, there has been only one major hurricane landfall anywhere in the Atlantic basin.

[Florida1118]

:uarrow: Why is it being used again then?

It was never retired.

So they stopped using it, and are going to start using it again?

[CrazyC83]

:uarrow: Why is it being used again then?

It was never retired.

So they stopped using it, and are going to start using it again?

The lists were completely overhauled after 1978. Any non-retired name from the pre-1979 lists are fair game to use.

[Hurricane Jed]

Good night Irene. Irma seems a suitable replacement name.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

It'll be rather amazing to most people over 50 in the USA that college students in Tallahassee have never heard of Irma. After all, Shirley Maclaine was the star of a 1963 film called "Irma LaDouce":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057187/

and, though she had a different spelling, the late Erma Bombeck was a famous humorist who had a newspaper column and wrote many best-selling books. It's rather amazing to me to see that Ms. Bombeck has been dead for 16 years now:

http://www.biography.com/people/erma-bombeck-259338

Personally I prefer an out-of-fashion name to one with a "young and pretty" image because I think it makes people slightly more likely to take the storm seriously as a threat.

Also, there really aren't many "young and pretty" I names that haven't been used. The two most obvious are Isabella and Ivy. I assume that the powers that be quite rightly thought that Isabella was too close to Isabel, a name which was just retired in 2003. Ivy would be a fantastic replacement on another list, but on this one it would be next to Harvey, and those two names just sound too much alike in some accents.

Anyway, as a name expert Irma is just the name I would have chosen, so I'm pleased. It's happened very rarely that the powers that be have chosen a replacement name that was one of my top choices, so I feel like I lucked out somehow this time.

[HurricaneBill]

When I think of the name Irma, I think of the character from the original Ninja Turtles cartoon.