With the development of Hurricane Idalia that made landfall overnight in Florida there has been much debate about its pronunciation and questions about why another name was not used.
Most people are familiar with the alternating naming system between male and female names that follows the English alphabet. Names change each year and are recycled for use approximately every six years. Sometimes a storm is so newsworthy, devastating, and costly that the World Meteorology Organization will retire a name.
Of the many that have been retired there are 13 that begin with the letter “I”, the most recent being Hurricane Ian in 2022. Because of that, the following “I” names will never be used again:
Ione, Inez, Iris, Isadore, Isabel, Ivan, Ike, Igor, Irene, Ingrid, Irma, Ida, and Ian!
There have been 10 “F” names and 9 “C” names that have also been retired. All of the retired names have occurred since 1954.
Idalia will likely have no direct impact on the Delmarva Peninsula as its projected path takes it back out to sea near Cape Hatteras. What it does after that remains to be seen. Most models indicate that it may continue on a clockwise path in a southeast motion that takes it back into the Atlantic Ocean. Bermuda, after escaping the wrath of Hurricane Franklin, should beware.
In the meantime Salisbury can expect a return to muggy weather today with highs returning to the mid to upper 80’s. There may be some isolated morning thunderstorms and the remainder of the day should be dominated by cloudy skies.
Cloudy skies are expected again tomorrow but temps may only reach the mid 70’s as we enter a period of roller coaster temperatures leading to 90 degrees at some point over the Labor Day weekend.