2011 Hurricane Names

Today is the first day of the 2011 hurricane season. The 6 month long North Atlantic hurricane season, runs from June 1 – November 30. Hurricanes are named in alphabetical order from the list in chronologically. Thus the first tropical storm or hurricane of the year has a name that begins with “A”, the second is given the name that begins with “B” and the third “C” and onwards to “W” with “Q” and “U” skipped.

2011 Hurricane Names

Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney

In the event that more than 21 named hurricanes occur in the Atlantic in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc.

Up until 1979 the lists consisted of only female names but since then the lists alternates between male and female as can be seen in the list above. When they occur the names of devastating storms like “Katrina” and “Gilbert” are retired and replaced with new ones.