2022 hurricane names Fiona, Ian retired for good
There will never be another Hurricane Ian. Or Fiona.
The World Meteorological Organization voted to retire those two storm names on Wednesday after both storms left trails of death and destruction during the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season.
Fiona will be replaced by Farrah; Ian will be replaced with Idris.
Fiona was a powerful Category 4 hurricane that hit parts of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos in September 2022. It later hit eastern Canada as a strong post-tropical cyclone.
Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 1 hurricane and brought devastating flash flooding to the island.
According to the WMO Fiona caused 29 direct and indirect deaths and $3 billion in damage across the Caribbean and Canada.
The storm brought devastating freshwater flooding to Puerto Rico, where it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane.
Fiona was the costliest extreme weather event on record in Atlantic Canada and was the deepest cyclone by minimum pressure on record there, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Ian was also a powerful Category 4 hurricane that devastated southwest Florida in late September 2022 after hitting western Cuba.
Ian caused a catastrophic storm surge in Florida and is blamed for more than 150 direct and indirect deaths. Ian also caused more than $112 billion in damage, making it the costliest hurricane in Florida history — and the third costliest in the U.S., according to the WMO.
The WMO is in charge of tropical cyclone names. There are several lists of names for each of the world’s basins, which are recycled every six years. The 2022 names will be used again in 2028.
A storm name is retired if it was particularly deadly or destructive.
According to the WMO, 96 names have been retired from the Atlantic list since 1953, when storms began to be named under the current system.
The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season will begin on June 1.
Here are the 2023 storm names:
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harold
Idalia
Jose
Katia
Lee
Margot
Nigel
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney