At a Glance

Four hurricane names from 2019 and 2020 were retired from future use.Particularly deadly and/or destructive tropical cyclones have their names retired.But there were five other storms that also had strong cases for retirement.

Four names over the past two hurricane seasons were retired from future use, but five others also made a strong case to be retired, one of which was a short-lived tropical storm.

During an annual meeting held online by the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) hurricane committee, were such destructive hurricanes in 2020 and 2019, respectively, that they will no longer be used to name future Atlantic tropical storms or hurricanes.

repeat every six years unless a storm is so severe that the WMO hurricane committee votes to retire that name from future lists. This avoids the use of, say, Harvey, Katrina, Maria or Sandy to describe a weak, open-ocean tropical storm in the future and also avoids any confusion that might occur if a notorious storm name is used again.

Laura and Dorian were slam dunks for retirement. The former: the strongest hurricane to landfall in Louisiana . The latter: a Category 5 pummeling of the northwestern Bahamas.

The committee also announced the Greek alphabet will no longer be used when name lists are exhausted in any season.

Despite that, the committee noted hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020 will both be removed from any future use as names, just as any other retired name, given their notoriously deadly and destructive impacts in Central America.

The back-to-back Category 4 landfalls within 13 days in Central America were also relatively easy calls for retirement.

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Since the naming of Atlantic tropical cyclones ditched the phonetic alphabet in 1953, 93 Atlantic tropical cyclone names have been retired through 2020.

Just as every professional athlete with a good career isn't elected to the hall of fame, not every tropical cyclone is destructive and/or deadly enough to have its name retired.

However, over the past two seasons, four other hurricanes and one tropical storm made a strong case for retirement but fell a bit short.

Hurricane Isaias

-Category 1 landfall in North Carolina, then widespread damaging winds from Virginia to New England.

-Over 6 million homes and businesses lost power, according to .

-Spawned at least 30 tornadoes, including a record long-track tornado for Delaware.

-Sixteen killed; estimated $4.8 billion in damage in the U.S., according to NOAA.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Isaias)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio talks with residents about damage from Tropical Storm Isaias, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York.

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Hurricane Sally

-Sally made landfall at Category 2 intensity on Sept. 16, 2020, near Gulf Shores, Alabama.

-Storm surge of up to 5.6 feet and up to 24 inches of rain flooded homes and businesses in downtown Pensacola, Florida.

-Rain rates of 4 to 6 inches per hour were estimated in southeastern Alabama, where sections of roads were washed out.

-Sally claimed 5 lives and produced an estimated $7.3 billion in damage in the U.S., according to NOAA.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Sally)

Hurricane Delta

-Delta made landfall at Category 2 intensity on Oct. 9, 2020, near Creole, Louisiana, only 14 miles east of where Laura made landfall some six weeks earlier.

-Over 9 inches of rain and wind gusts to 95 mph pummeled Lake Charles, Louisiana.

-Delta claimed 5 lives and produced an estimated $2.9 billion in damage in the U.S., according to NOAA.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Delta)

Hurricane Zeta

-Zeta made landfall at Category 2 intensity on Oct. 28, 2020, in southeastern Louisiana, two days after a landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

-Zeta accelerated through the Southeast, producing widespread damaging winds that downed trees and .

-Power restoration took several days in both the Atlanta and New Orleans metro areas.

-Zeta claimed 6 lives and produced an estimated $3.5 billion in damage in the U.S., according to NOAA.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Zeta)

A downed tree blocks a street on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

(AP Photo/Ron Harris)

Tropical Storm Imelda

Among the five tropical cyclones highlighted, this was my strongest case for retirement, despite never becoming a hurricane.

-Imelda became a tropical depression and made landfall in southeastern Texas on Sept. 17, 2019, then became a remnant in eastern Texas the following day.

-2 to 4 feet of rain was dumped on southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, the fifth-wettest tropical cyclone to impact the Lower 48.

-This led to massive flooding between Houston and Beaumont, Texas. Thousands of homes, cars and businesses were inundated.

-2015's Tropical Storm Erika and 2001's Tropical Storm Allison were the only retired systems to never have become hurricanes since 1954. Allison dumped similarly heavy rainfall, but more centered on the city of Houston.

-Five killed; estimated $5.1 billion of damage in the U.S., according to NOAA.

(FULL RECAP: Tropical Storm Imelda)

A man and his wife wave they are ok as a Cajun Navy boat checks on flood victims on highway 124 on Sept. 20, 2019, in Beaumont, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared much of Southeast Texas disaster areas after heavy rain and flooding from the remnants of Tropical Depression Imelda dumped more than two feet of water across some areas. (Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images)

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