2025 hurricane names: from Andrea to Wendy
Karen, Dexter and Lorenzo are some of the names that are ready to be used during the Atlantic hurricane season. Is your name on the list?
AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva was live on the AccuWeather Network on May 21 to discuss AccuWeather’s 2025 hurricane season forecast. The Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1.
Naming tropical storms and hurricanes is a practice that dates back to the 1950s, and with Sunday, June 1 marking the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists have a new list of names ready for use.
The annual list contains 21 names in alphabetical order, excluding those starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. Each hurricane basin has its own set of names, with the Atlantic basin covering storms that develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf and Caribbean Sea.
Most names are reused every six years, so almost every storm that develop this season will share a name with a tropical storm or hurricane from 2019. The only change is the addition of Dexter, which replaces Dorian, a name that has been retired.
"In the interests of safety, the name must be instantly recognizable. In addition, English, French and Spanish names are used in balance on the list in order to reflect the geographical coverage of Atlantic and Caribbean storms," said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is in charge of creating the lists of names.
What happens if we run out of names?
Prior to 2021, if there were 22 or more storms in a season, the Greek alphabet would be used to identify tropical storms and hurricanes, starting with Alpha. Originally, it was believed this would be exceedingly rare, but following the record-breaking 2020 season which had 30 storms, the rules were changed.
"Starting 2021, in lieu of the Greek alphabet, the lists of supplemental tropical cyclones names will be used," the WMO said. The secondary list is also in alphabetical order, starting with Adria.
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is the closest we have come to needing to use the backup names. That season, there were 21 storms, using every name on the original list, falling just shy of needing to use a supplemental name.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30, but any tropical storm that spins up before the calendar flips from Dec. 31, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026, can be given a name.
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