There are 26 letters in the alphabet but only 21 are set aside each year for potential tropical storm and hurricane names in areas tracked by the National Hurricane Center.
The names for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season are Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.
There are no names for Q, U, X, Y and Z, and each of the 21 names alternate from female to male. This year starts with a female name and next year will begin with a male name.
If some of this year’s names seem familiar, it’s because each year’s names are decided six years out by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. If a storm name isn’t retired after a season it recycles.
This year, for instance, the WMO Hurricane Committee retired Beryl, Helene and Milton from its Atlantic basin name list “because of the death and destruction these storms caused in 2024,” according to a WMO press release. They were replaced by Brianna, Holly and Miguel — but those won’t be used until 2030.
Hurricane Debby, though, which struck Florida’s Big Bend in August, remains on the potential storm names list for 2030. The storm was blamed for 12 deaths but was nowhere near as destructive as Helene or Milton.
So a good chunk of the storm names used in 2019 are getting reused this year. Andrea, for instance, had been used in 2019, 2013 and 2007.
If there are more than 21 named storms, WMO initiated a supplemental list first available in 2021 for new storm names. They are Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath, Isla, Jacobus, Kenzie, Lucio, Makayla, Nolan, Orlanda, Pax, Ronin, Sophie, Tayshaun, Viviana and Will.
Before 2021, if there were more than 21 named storms in a year it would take on a letter from the Greek alphabet for its name: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and so forth.
Only twice has NHC utilized the spillover list. First in 2005 when it used six letters of the Greek alphabet, and again in 2020 when it required nine letters including Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota. That was deemed potentially confusing and dangerous and thus begat the new augmented naming system.
The NHC began naming storms in 1963.
In addition to 2019’s Dorian and last year’s Beryl, Helene and Milton, the other retired storm names over the last decade are 2022’s Fiona and Ian; 2021’s Ida; 2020’s Laura, Eta and Iota; 2018’s Florence and Michael; 2017’s Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate; 2016’s Matthew; and Otto and 2015’s Erika and Joaquin.
Other storms that have struck Florida whose names were retired include 2005’s Dennis, Katrina and Wilma; 2004’s Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne; 1995’s Opal; and 1992’s Andrew.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A record amount of sargassum piled up across the Caribbean and nearby areas in May, and more is expected this month, according to a new report.
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The brown prickly algae is suffocating shorelines from Puerto Rico to Guyana and beyond, disrupting tourism, killing wildlife and even releasing toxic gases that forced one school in the French Caribbean island of Martinique to temporarily close.
The amount — 38 million metric tons — is the biggest quantity of algae observed across the Caribbean Sea, the western and eastern Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico since scientists began studying the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt in 2011, said Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida who worked on the report published on Monday by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab.
“The peaks just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger year after year,” he said.
But scientists don’t know why yet.
“It’s the million-dollar question,” he said. “I don’t have a supremely satisfying answer.”
Three different types of sargassum exist in the Caribbean and nearby areas, reproducing asexually as they remain afloat thanks to tiny air sacs. They thrive in different ways depending on sunlight, nutrients and water temperature, factors that scientists are currently studying, Barnes said.
Sargassum covers the coast of Playa Lucía, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
Experts also have said that agricultural runoff, warming waters and changes in wind, current and rain could have an effect.
While large clumps of algae in the open ocean are what Barnes called a “healthy, happy ecosystem” for creatures ranging from tiny shrimp to endangered sea turtles, sargassum near or on shore can wreak havoc.
It can block sunlight that coral reefs need to survive, and if the algae sinks, it can smother reefs and sea grasses. Once it reaches shore, the creatures living in the algae die or are picked off by birds, Barnes said.
Huge piles of stinky seaweed also are a headache for the Caribbean, where tourism often generates big money for small islands.
“It is a challenge, but it’s certainly not affecting every single inch of the Caribbean,” said Frank Comito, special adviser to the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.
In the popular tourist spot of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, officials have invested in barriers to prevent sargassum from reaching the shore, he said.
Sargassum gathers off the coast of Playa Lucía, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
In the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten, crews with backhoes were dispatched in late May as part of an emergency clean-up after residents complained of strong smells of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, which can affect a person’s respiratory system.
“The smell is quite terrible,” Barnes said.
Meanwhile, in the French Caribbean, officials expect to soon use storage barges and an upgraded special vessel that can collect several tons of seaweed a day.
The sargassum “disfigures our coasts, prevents swimming and makes life impossible for local residents,” French Prime Minister François Bayrou recently told reporters.
But Comito said such vessels are “massively expensive” and not a popular option, noting that another option — using heavy equipment —- is labor-intensive.
“You have to be careful because there could be sea turtle eggs affected,” he said. “It’s not like you can go in there and massively rake and scrape the whole thing.”
A pier sits damaged as sargassum surrounds the coastline of Punta Santiago, Humacao, Puerto Rico, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
Some Caribbean islands struggle financially, so most of the cleanup is done by hotels, with some offering guests refunds or a free shuttle to unaffected beaches.
Every year, the amount of sargassum expands in late spring, peaks around summer and starts to decline in the late fall or early winter, Barnes said.
The new record set is hardly stationary — experts said they expect even more sargassum for June.
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An agency spokesperson said in a statement the positions will be advertised under a temporary reprieve from the federal government’s widespread hiring pause “to further stabilize frontline operations.” NOAA also said they are filling some field office openings by reassigning staff, including some temporary hires.
The agency didn’t say how many jobs would be posted and refused to provide more details.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts gutted NWS and NOAA — which provide daily weather forecasts, up-to-the-minute severe storm warnings, climate monitoring and extreme weather tracking — earlier this year.
The weather service’s mission includes warning people in danger with enough time to evacuate or find safe shelter. The cuts forced weather forecast offices to reduce their hours or no longer staff overnight shifts in less critical periods.
Insiders and experts have warned of the consequences that a staffing shortage would mean for weather forecasting amid extreme weather and the U.S. economy.
“In 2024, NOAA was able to offer some of its most accurate weather forecasting to date for active hurricanes,” said Union of Concerned Scientists science fellow Marc Alessi. “These incredibly accurate forecasts were made possible by a fully funded NOAA.
“Despite the worsening climate and extreme weather impacts being felt across the country, the Trump administration has proceeded with its inhumane agenda that will leave people on the frontlines of disasters at greater risk,” Alessi added.
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.
Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian rocket attack targeted the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding 25, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the assault, saying it underscored that Moscow has no intentions of halting the 3-year-old war.
The attack came a day after direct peace talks in Istanbul made no progress on ending the fighting. Local authorities said the barrage of rockets struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the center of Sumy.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s secret services said they struck inside Russia again, two days after a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack on air bases deep inside the country.
In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 127th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defence press service, soldiers fire a canon towards Russian army positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 2, 2025, (Anatolii Lysianskyi/Ukraine’s 127th Separate Brigade via AP)
Soldiers of Ukraine’s 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Soldiers of Ukraine’s 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
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In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 127th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defence press service, soldiers fire a canon towards Russian army positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 2, 2025, (Anatolii Lysianskyi/Ukraine’s 127th Separate Brigade via AP)
The Ukrainian Security Service, known by its acronym SBU, claimed it damaged the foundations of the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and illegally annexed Crimea — a key artery for Russian military supplies in the war.
The SBU said it detonated 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds) of explosives on the seabed overnight, in an operation that took several months to set up. It was the third Ukrainian strike on the bridge since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, the SBU said.
“The bridge is now effectively in an emergency condition,” the SBU claimed.
The agency said no civilians were killed or injured in the operation. It was not possible to independently confirm those claims.
Traffic across the Kerch Bridge was halted for three hours early Tuesday, but it reopened at 9 a.m., official Russian social media channels said. It closed for a second time at 3:20 p.m. and reopened again after two and a half hours.
Zelenskyy appeals for pressure on Moscow
The Ukrainian president called the attack on Sumy a “completely deliberate” strike on civilians.
“That’s all you need to know about Russia’s ‘desire’ to end this war,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media.
Zelenskyy appealed for global pressure and “decisive action from the United States, Europe and everyone in the world who holds power.” Without it, he said, Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not agree even to a ceasefire.”
The war has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line where the fighting grinds on despite U.S.-led efforts to broker a peace deal.
A stunning Ukrainian drone attack
Though Russia has a bigger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, the Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, Ukrainian officials said, touting it as a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal and military prestige.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that the Ukrainian attack set several planes ablaze at two air bases but said the military repelled attempted attacks on three other air bases.
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Both Zelenskyy and Putin have been eager to show U.S. President Donald Trump that they share his ambition to end the fighting — and avoid possible punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a U.S.-proposed ceasefire, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement has to be on his terms.
Delegations from the warring sides agreed Monday to swap dead and wounded troops, but their conditions for ending the war remained far apart.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country’s Security Council chaired by Putin, indicated on Tuesday that there would be no let-up in Russia’s invasion.
“The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction” of Ukraine’s government, he said.
In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that “retribution is inevitable.”
A Putin-Zelenskyy-Trump meeting ‘unlikely’ soon, Moscow says
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to suggestions that a face-to-face meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy could break the deadlock, saying the possibility was “unlikely in the near future.”
Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has traveled to Washington for talks about defense, sanctions and postwar recovery, said Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
The delegation will meet with representatives from both major U.S. political parties, as well as with advisers to Trump, Yermak added.
Ukrainians in Kyiv welcomed the strikes on Russian air bases but were gloomy about prospects for a peace agreement.
“Russia has invested too many resources in this war to just … stop for nothing,” said serviceman Oleh Nikolenko, 43.
His wife, Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, said diplomacy cannot stop the fighting. “We need to show by force, by physical force, that we cannot be defeated,” she said.
Russia recently expanded its attacks on Sumy and the Kharkiv region following Putin’s promise to create a buffer zone along the border that might prevent long-range Ukrainian attacks from hitting Russian soil. Sumy, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border, had a prewar population of around 250,000.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops had taken the Ukrainian village of Andriivka, close to the border in the Sumy region. Ukraine made no immediate comment on the claim, which could not be independently verified.
Russia also fired rocket artillery at Chystovodivka village in the Kharkiv region, killing two people and injuring three others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
