There are several letters missing from lists of hurricane names. Why is that?
The National Hurricane Center uses an alphabetical list of 21 names when it comes to tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic basin.
Wait, aren't there 26 letters in the alphabet?
We'll pause here while you sing your ABCs and count them.
So what letters are missing and why?
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Who comes up with the list of tropical cyclone names?
The list of hurricane names comes from the World Meteorological Organization. There are six lists which rotate, with storm names used in alphabetical order.
"In the interests of safety, the name must be instantly recognizable. In addition, English, French and Spanish names are used in balance on the list in order to reflect the geographical coverage of Atlantic and Caribbean storms," the WMO said.
So unless a name is retired, you'll see the same names pop up every six years.
There's also an alternate list — which started in 2021 — that replaced the Greek alphabet names when all the names are used in a particular year.
That's a lot of names.
What happens when names run out? Hurricane season has 2 months to go and only 5 names left. What happens then?
Five letters missing from Atlantic tropical cyclone names
The list of hurricane names covers only 21 letters of the alphabet since it is difficult to find six suitable names for each of the five missing letters, the WMO said.
Letters not included are: Q, U, X, Y and Z.
Sorry all the Quentins out there. And we've seen our share of Disney names, so Ursula, you're out, too.
When names run out: Hurricane season has 2 months to go and only 4 names left. What happens then?
Only 2 letters not used for eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones
There are fewer letters missing on the lists when it comes to tropical cyclones in the eastern North Pacific. Only Q and U aren't used at all.
There's a but coming here.
While there may be more X, Y and Z names that meet the criteria for this region, there aren't enough for six lists, plus the alternate.
So two names for each of these letters are alternated every other year in the Eastern North Pacific:
Xina and Xavier
York and Yolanda
Zelda and Zeke
Atlantic hurricane season dates
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
The most-active months are from mid-August through mid-October, with Sept. 10 considered the peak of the season.
Storms can and do develop outside of these months. This year started with an unnamed subtropical storm in January.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Five letters aren't on rotation of hurricane names: Q, U, X, Y, Z
