A storm name is retired if it produces catastrophic damage or many deaths.
Below is the full list of ‘M’ named storms retired from the Atlantic basin.
Most of these storms formed in the western Atlantic or Caribbean and moved northeast either over Florida or the Caribbean islands and then swept deep into the Atlantic.
However, the most recent retired ‘M’ storm, Michael, also tracked through Florida (panhandle) in the same time frame as our current storm (early October)! Michael made headlines exactly 6 years ago!
Based on expected impacts, Milton will likely be retired and the World Meteorological Organization will be responsible for replacing the name. The likely new name will be included in the 2030 list of named storms since each list cycles around once every six years. The World Meteorological Organization won’t announce the name replacement until at least early March of 2025.
To put things in perspective, Michael would have been used this year IF it was not retired in 2018 (6 years ago) since Michael was on the list that is currently in use.
Local records show October ties with June as one of our least likely months of the hurricane season to see impacts from Atlantic storms. Also, none of the ‘M’ storms have impacted our region over the years.
