The World Meteorological Organization announced Wednesday that Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian have been permanently retired and will never appear on any future hurricane list.
We have had a total of 96 retired storms in the Atlantic since 1954. Thirteen of those have come in the last six seasons.
Hurricanes are retired when there are massive amounts of death, massive amounts of destruction, or the storm is meteorologically historic. Ian and Fiona check all three boxes.
Since the 2017 season, the names are seared into our minds: Harvey, Irma, Maria, Nate, Florence, Michael, Dorian, Laura, Eta, Iota, Ida, Fiona and Ian.
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Since 1954, the letter that has been retired more than any other is the letter “I” — which is no coincidence since that is normally the time the big storms that originate off the coast of Africa can become devastating.
