General Information
Theoretically, a hurricane or tropical storm of any strength can have its name retired; retirement is based entirely on the level of damage caused by a storm. However, until 1972, no Category 1 hurricane had its name retired, and no named tropical storm had its name retired until 2001. This is at least partially due to the fact that weaker storms tend to cause less damage, and the few weak storms that have had their names retired caused most of their destruction through heavy rainfall rather than winds, such as Hurricane Stan in 2005.
Since 1953, 76 storms have had their names retired. Of these, two (Carol and Edna) were reused after the storm for which they were retired but were later retroactively retired, and two others (Hilda and Janet) were included on later lists of storm names but were not reused before being retroactively retired. Historical records are unclear on the status of Gracie from the 1959 season. The official National Hurricane Center website does not report Gracie as a retired name, but it is widely referred to as retired, including by other official sources.
If all the names on a season's normal list are used up, storms are then named after the letters of the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.) Unlike the normal names, these cannot be retired. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "At present there are no plans to retire letters of the Greek alphabet from the list, but if a very bad hurricane occurs with a Greek letter name, this may have to be revised."
Since 1959, the following seasons have had no names retired from that season: 1953, 1956, 1958, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2006 and 2009.
Read more about this topic: List Of Retired Atlantic Hurricane Names
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