The National Hurricane Center rotates six name lists to give monikers to storms. So, the 2023 list is the same one used in 2017.
You remember what happened in 2017, right?
That was the year Hurricane Irma, after laying waste to much of the Caribbean, traveled north up the length of the Florida peninsula, causing millions of dollars in damage from the Keys to the Jacksonville.
The World Meteorological Office retires the names of storms that do incredible damage and leave an indelible mark, like Irma. Following the 2017 season, that name, along with Harvey (slammed into the Texas coast as a Category 4 before stalling and dropping historic rain on the Houston area), Nate (did incredible damage in Central America before quickly hitting Mississippi) and Maria (destroyed much of the Lesser Antilles before crippling Puerto Rico).
Those names have been replaced; this list was also used in 2005, and no longer includes the names Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the Category 5 storms that forever changed the Gulf Coast and South Florida.
So the list of names for 2023 is now: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harold, Idalia, Jose, Katia, Lee, Margot, Nigel, Ophelia, Phillippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, Whitney.
