The names of tropical cyclones are on a rotating list and recur every sixth year – unless the storm is so deadly or devastating that it would be inappropriate to name a future storm the same.
Beryl, Helene, Milton, and John are now being replaced by Brianna, Holly, Miguel, and Jake.
It's not every year that as many as four hurricanes change their names, but it's not extremely unusual either, says Sverker Hellström, climatologist at SMHI.
My colleague and I have looked back and in the past 70 years, it has happened 13 times, so it's about once every five to ten years.
The hurricane season in the North Atlantic was somewhat stronger than usual last year.
Warning people
Tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific have been given names since 1953, based on lists first drawn up by the National Hurricane Center. Now it's the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that's in charge of and updates the lists.
The name is never after an individual person but should be short, easy to pronounce, have a suitable meaning in different languages, and be unique – the same name can't be used in different regions.
Norway names
In Sweden, there's no tradition of naming storms, but the Norwegian weather service has been naming severe weather warnings since the mid-1990s.
Since severe weather often comes from the west, the Norwegian weather service often gets to name them before they reach Sweden.
Today, the weather services in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have a dialogue about the name. If one country has already given a name to a storm, the others often choose the same.
If a severe storm develops over Sweden without having been named in Norway or Denmark, SMHI names it by taking one of the day's names according to the almanac. The first time a storm was named in this way was Storm Simone on October 28, 2013.
Beryl swept in over Mexico and the Caribbean in early July. 98 percent of the houses on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were destroyed or damaged. 34 people died in the storm.
Hurricane Helene reached Florida's coast in late September and became the deadliest hurricane in the USA since Katrina in 2005, with more than 248 dead.
Not long after, Milton swept in, and 15 people lost their lives. The storm caused a historic and deadly tornado outbreak over Florida.
Hurricane John reached Mexico in September and brought extreme amounts of rain, causing widespread flooding and claiming 29 lives.
