Sandy retired May 15, 2013

I missed this story last month, but the National Hurricane Center has retired the name Sandy from its list of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone names.  Beginning in 2018, and every six years thereafter until the next retirement, the “S” storm will be named “Sara.”  Here are the first two paragraphs of NOAA’s article about the name retirement:

Sandy has been retired from the official list of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone names by the World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane committee because of the extreme impacts it caused from Jamaica and Cuba to the Mid-Atlantic United States in October 2012.

Storm names are reused every six years for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins. If a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of the name would be insensitive or confusing, the WMO hurricane committee, which includes personnel from NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, may retire the name. Sandy is the 77th name to be retired from the Atlantic list since 1954. The name will be replaced with “Sara” beginning in 2018.

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I think I speak for everyone affected by Sandy when I say “good riddance.”

You can read about my Sandy experience here.  I was lucky.  All I experienced was nine days without power.  It was nothing like the horror that waterfront residents experienced, and many are still recovering from.