If 'Idalia' Is Retired, It'll Continue a Trend

I-named hurricanes are retired the most, because they've been more terrible than most

By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 30, 2023 3:15 PM CDT

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'I' Hurricane Names Have Been Retired Most Often — This Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, 11:21am EDT satellite image shows Hurricane Idalia over Florida and crossing into Georgia, and Hurricane Franklin, right, as it moves along off the East Coast. (NOAA via AP)

Hurricane Idalia plowed into Florida on Wednesday morning, and if it wreaks enough havoc we'll never see another Idalia again. As CNN reports, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization retires hurricane names after a particularly deadly or destructive storm, and it so happens that Atlantic hurricane names beginning with the letter "I" have been retired at the highest rate, with 14 names, or 15% of the entire retiree list, out for the count. "F" names are the second-most retired Atlantic storm names, with 10 having been taken out of rotation.

There have been three retirees in the past three years, and Idalia could prove to be a fourth. When "the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity," the name gets shelved and another name replaces it. The name lists cycle every six years, meaning that this year's list of unretired names will pop up again in 2029. The previously retired names:

Ian (2022)—150 deaths
Ida (2021)—100 deaths
Igor (2010)—1 death
Ike (2008)—103 deaths
Inez (1966)—300 deaths
Ingrid (2013)—32 deaths
Ione (1955)—7 deaths
Iota (2020)—84 deaths
Irene (2011)—48 deaths
Iris (2001)—50 deaths
Irma (2017)—150 deaths
Isabel (2003)—51 deaths
Isidore (2002)—9 deaths
Ivan (2004)—100 deaths

(More Hurricane Idalia stories.)

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