Ian, Fiona retired as future hurricane names

The World Meteorological Organization Hurricane Committee has retired Fiona and Ian from the rotating lists of Atlantic tropical cyclone names because of the death and destruction they caused in Central America, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Canada.

Farrah will be used to replace Fiona in the list of names, whilst Idris will replace Ian.

WMO uses lists of names to help communicate storm warnings and to alert people about potentially life-threatening risks. In this region, the names are repeated every six years unless a storm is so deadly that its name is retired. Ninety-six names have been retired from the Atlantic basin list since 1953 when storms began to be named under the current system.

Fiona was a large and powerful hurricane that hit communities in the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos. It then moved northward over the western Atlantic and struck Canada as a strong post-tropical cyclone in September 2022, bringing significant damage and loss of life along its path.

The storm brought devastating freshwater flooding to Puerto Rico, making landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane. The storm produced over $3 billion (U.S. dollars) in damage across the Caribbean and Canada and was responsible for 29 direct and indirect fatalities. Fiona is the costliest extreme weather event on record in Atlantic Canada.

Ian struck western Cuba as a major hurricane and made landfall in Southwest Florida as a Category 4. Ian caused a devastating storm surge and is responsible for over 150 direct and indirect deaths and over $112 billion in damage in the U.S., making it the costliest hurricane in Florida’s history and the third costliest in the country.