Storm Names

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

The six lists above are used in rotation and re-cycled every six years, i.e., the 2014 list will be used again in 2020. The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. Several names have been retired since the lists were created. Here is more information the history of naming tropical cyclones and retired names.

If a storm forms in the off-season, it will take the next name in the list based on the current calendar date. For example, if a tropical cyclone formed on December 28th, it would take the name from the previous season's list of names. If a storm formed in February, it would be named from the subsequent season's list of names.

2020 Edouard

Start Date:	04 Jul 2020
End Date:	04 Jul 2020
Pressure Min:	1007
Wind Speed Max:	40
Storm Category:

Description:
On July 1, a cluster of thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective vortex formed over the northern Tennessee Valley in association with a stalled front pattern and slowly moved southeastwards. By July 2, the remnant mesolow emerged off the coast of Georgia. As the system gradually drifted over warm sea surface temperatures near the coast, some organized thunderstorm activity blossomed near the center of the system throughout July 3 and helped the system develop a more defined low level circulation, and the NHC began monitoring the low around 00:00 UTC on July 4. Just four hours later, the circulation of the low subsequently became better defined and closed as evidenced by satellite-derived surface wind data. The disturbance rapidly developed over the next couple of hours, and at 15:00 UTC on July 4 the NHC issued its first advisory on the system as Tropical Depression Five.

The system gradually drifted north-northeast towards Bermuda while the system's central thunderstorm activity began to decrease as a result of the diurnal minimum. Little change in intensity occurred as the storm passed just 70 miles (110 km) north of Bermuda around 09:00 UTC on July 5. Shortly after, the storm began to accelerate northeast continuing to lack in strength, having been forecast to become a tropical storm for at least 24 hours but failing to reach the intensity, until a large burst of convection as a result of baroclinic forces allowed the system to tighten its circulation further and strengthen, allowing the National Hurricane Center to upgrade the system to Tropical Storm Edouard at 03:00 UTC on July 6. This made Edouard the earliest fifth named storm on record in the North Atlantic Ocean, surpassing Hurricane Emily, which became a tropical storm on July 11, 2005. Edouard intensified further to a peak intensity of 1007 mb (29.74 inHg) and with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km/h) at 18:00 UTC that same day as a frontal boundary approached Edouard from the northwest, effectively triggering extratropical transition, which it completed 3 hours later while located about 450 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The extratropical remnants of the storm would continue to travel eastward for several days before finally dissipating over the Baltic Sea.

The Bermuda Weather Service issued a gale warning for the entirety of the island chain in advance of the system on July 4. Unsettled weather with thunderstorms later ensued, and the depression caused tropical storm-force wind gusts and moderate rainfall on the island early on July 5, but impacts were relatively minor.

In the event that more than twenty-one named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet.