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These are the 2019 hurricane names for Atlantic storms

The official start of the hurricane season is June 1, but we already had a subtropical storm in the Atlantic.

Credit: NOAA via Getty Images

In this satellite image provided by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Florence churns through the Atlantic Ocean toward the U.S. East Coast on September 12, 2018.

TEMPLE, Texas — Here are the 2019 hurricane, tropical storm names:

Andrea

Barry

Chantal

Erin

Fernand

Gabrielle

Humberto

Imelda

Jerry

Karen

Lorenzo

Melissa

Nestor

Olga

Pablo

Rebekah

Sebastian

Tanya

Van

Wendy

Some history behind hurricane names:

Before the 1950s, meteorologists referred to hurricanes and tropical storms in the order they happened, such as "the fifth tropical storm" or "storm 5."
During the 1950s, they realized it would be easier to keep track of storms by naming them. Until 1979, all of the names were female.
The World Meteorological Organization comes up with the names each year. They use six sets of alphabetical lists, alternating between male and female names. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z aren't used.
If there are more than 21 storms in a year (heaven forbid!), they use the Greek alphabet.
Names for the worst storms, like Harvey, Maria and Katrina, are retired.

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(KHOU contributed to the content in this story)