With the start of hurricane season a month away, the World Meteorological Organization has unveiled its list of this year’s potential Atlantic hurricane names.
The list for 2022 actually is one of six rotating lists maintained by the WMO, and is being used for the first time since 2016. But following the 2016 season, the names Otto and Matthew were retired, replaced this year by the names Owen and Martin.
Forecasters with the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University already have predicted an above-average hurricane season for the Atlantic basin again this year. They predicted 19 named storms this season, five more than normal. Nine are expected to become hurricanes, with four of those developing into major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
The WMO also voted to stop using the Greek alphabet as its overflow list of names, and has introduced instead a supplemental list of alphabetized names to employ if the main list of 21 names is exhausted. Names on the new supplemental list include Deshawn, Jacobus, Pax, Ronin and Tayshaun.