Hurricanes Matthew and Otto Retired as Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Names

Jon Erdman
Published: March 27,2017
Matthew and Otto will no longer be used as names in future hurricane seasons, retired by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in an announcement made Monday by NOAA.
(MORE: Why Hurricanes are Named)

Atlantic and eastern Pacific hurricane and tropical storm name lists repeat every six years unless one is so destructive and/or deadly that the committee votes to retire that name from future lists. The WMO provides the name lists for tropical cyclones.

When the list from 2016 is reused in 2022, Matthew and Otto will be replaced with Martin and Owen.
Matthew will be remembered for the destruction it caused in the Caribbean and eventually the United States in October 2016. Otto hammered Central America on Thanksgiving Day and broke several records.
(RECAPS: Matthew | Otto)
Haiti was devastated by Matthew's destructive storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rainfall. More than 500 of the 585 direct deaths from the hurricane were in Haiti, NOAA said.

Matthew also caused significant damage in eastern Cuba and the Bahamas on its journey toward the United States.
Locations along the Southeast coast, from Florida to the Carolinas, suffered damage as Matthew hugged the coast before making landfall in South Carolina on Oct. 8. Its most severe impact was the catastrophic flooding from torrential rainfall that occurred in parts of North and South Carolina.
The damage from Matthew cost an estimated $10 billion in the U.S., most of which was due to the severe flooding in the Carolinas, NOAA said. Some 100,000 homes, businesses and other structures were damaged by the floodwaters.
Otto's worst impacts occurred on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24) in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where it brought heavy rain that caused flooding and contributed to18 deaths. The hurricane was also the latest in the season to make landfall anywhere in the Atlantic Basin. In addition, Otto made landfall farther south than any previously known hurricane in Central America.
(MORE: 2016 Hurricane Season)

82 Atlantic Names Retired

Including Matthew and Otto, 82 Atlantic tropical cyclone names have been retired since the naming of Atlantic tropical cyclones ditched the phonetic alphabet in 1953.
Only 20 seasons haven't had a name retired, most recently in 2014. Another 23 seasons have had multiple names removed from future use, led by the record-smashing 2005 hurricane season's five retirees.
Names beginning with the letter "I" lead the retirees with 10, followed by nine "C" storms, then eight "F" storms. Eight of those "I" storms have earned retirement just since 2001, including a four-year streak from 2001 through 2004 (Iris, Isidore, Isabel and Ivan, respectively). Wilma in 2005 is the deepest-in-the-alphabet retiree.
Some names you'll instantly recognize. Others, not so much.
For example, Katrina, Rita and Wilma are the three you probably remember from 2005. You may have forgotten about Dennis and Stan, however. Did you know Stan may have been more deadly than Katrina?
The retired Atlantic storms weren't all necessarily intense Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes. In fact, a good number of them were retired due to their deadly flooding in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America or U.S. Some examples include 2015's Erika, 2013's Ingrid in Mexico, 1996's Hortense in Puerto Rico and 1972's Agnes in the eastern U.S.
(MORE: 75 Percent of U.S. Hurricane Deaths From Water, Not Wind)
Tropical Storm Allison (2001) and Tropical Storm Erika (2015) are the only retirees never to attain hurricane status. Allison was a $9 billion storm and one of the worst floods of record in Houston.
(MORE: Most Devastating U.S. Hurricanes | Hurricane Central)
Still, there are some storms that arguably should have been retired long ago.
"I'd still like to know why the name Alberto wasn't retired after the disaster in 1994," said Stu Ostro of The Weather Channel. Alberto's remnants produced massive flooding in eastern Alabama and western Georgia in early July 1994.
We also made a case in 2013 for retiring Isaac after its $2+ billion in damage in the U.S.
MORE: Atlantic Basin Retired Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

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