Melissa Becomes 100th Name To Be Retired

Hurricane Melissa, a historic Category 5 storm, devastated numerous Caribbean countries with extremely powerful winds, torrential rain and significant storm surge.

And now there will never be another with that name.

“Melissa” has officially become the 100th Atlantic hurricane named to be retired since 1954.

Weather in your inbox

Forecast Location

Sign Up

By signing up you agree to the Terms & Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe at any time.

The decision to retire the 2025 name was made during an annual meeting held this week by the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) hurricane committee. This committee, not the U.S. National Hurricane Center, is responsible for the tropical cyclone name lists.

(MORE: The Worst Of The Worst: A List Of Retired Names)

Why Do We Retire Storm Names?

Tropical storm and hurricane name lists in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Basins repeat every six years unless a storm is so severe that the name is retired from future lists. This avoids any confusion or insensitivity over the use of particularly infamous storms like Harvey, Ian, Katrina, Maria or Sandy to describe a future storm.

Melissa will be replaced in the 2031 Atlantic hurricane season by Molly.

(MORE: Hurricane Melissa’s Final Report)

Hurricane Melissa: At A Glance

• Killed 95 people in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic
• Maximum sustained winds: 190 mph (tied for strongest in the Atlantic)
• Minimum central pressure: 892 millibars (tied for third most intense in the Atlantic)
• Nailed Jamaica at near peak intensity with winds of 185 mph; dropping more than 32 inches of rain
• Total damage in Jamaica is estimated at $8.8 billion – 41% of Jamaica’s 2024 gross domestic product
• The hurricane spawned a nationwide humanitarian crisis, which includes a highly damaged power grid, ruined hospitals, disrupted roads and many destroyed homes.
• Dropped more than three feet of rain in western Haiti
• Tens of thousands were displaced in Haiti and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed by flooding
• Then, Melissa made landfall in Cuba as a Category 3, compounding flooding issues from a disturbance a week earlier. Widespread damage due to rainfall and landslides occurred in eastern Cuba. Agricultural losses were extensive.

Retirement Facts

Melissa was the only name retired after the 2025 season. This is down from the 4 named storms that were retired in 2024: Helene, Milton, Beryl and John.

(MORE: 2024 Retirees)

There have only been 20 seasons with zero names retired, with the most recent in 2023.

In total, there have been 29 seasons, through 2025, that have had multiple names removed from future use. And it is no surprise that the record-smashing 2005 hurricane season leads this statistic with an impressive five retirees.

The letter that has the most retired named storms is "I" with 13. This is due to the fact that the ninth named storm often forms in the most active months with the most favorable conditions.