Has there ever been a hurricane named Opal?
Opal
1995
NOAA HURDAT2 · AL17 · 1995 · 39 fixes
Yes: Opal, 1995, Cat 4 (Atlantic)
Chart of Opal, 1995: formed Sep 27, peak 130 knots (Cat 4), 1 landfall. Atlantic.
Opal
1995
NOAA HURDAT2 · AL17 · 1995 · 39 fixes
Yes: Opal, 1995, Cat 4 (Atlantic)
Chart of Opal, 1995: formed Sep 27, peak 130 knots (Cat 4), 1 landfall. Atlantic.
1 storm1 majorstrongest Cat 4 (1995)
53 % of 553 used names reached Cat 3+ · Opal did
Retired 1995 (WMO)
This tool checks NOAA's HURDAT2 records (Atlantic and East/Central Pacific, named storms since 1950) for any first name.
NOAA's records hold one storm named Opal: 1995.
The strongest, in 1995, peaked at 130 knots as a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic, with a lowest pressure of 916 mb.
The name was retired after 1995 and will not be used again there.
| Year | Ocean | Dates | Peak | Wind | Pressure | Landfalls | Retired | NHC report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Atlantic | Sep 27 – Oct 6 | Cat 4 | 130 kt | 916 mb | 1 | 1995 (WMO) | — |
Accents and anything that is not a letter are dropped and the rest is upper-cased, so “José” finds JOSE (R1). An empty box asks you to type a name.
Both NOAA files are read line by line (R2): 3,250 storm records, of which 1,915 carry a real name and 553 names are different. Unnamed storms and numbered depressions (“ONE”, “TWENTY-TWO”) are left out. A storm that crossed from the Atlantic into the Pacific under one name is counted once. Landfalls are the rows NOAA flags “L”; where the files have no such rows (Atlantic 1976–1982, Pacific before 1989) the table says “not flagged”.
For each storm (R3–R4): first and last date, the highest wind while it was tropical, the lowest pressure, and its Saffir-Simpson category from the highest wind it had as a hurricane: 64 knots is Category 1, 83 is 2, 96 is 3, 113 is 4, 137 is 5. Category 3 and up is “major”.
The chart shows the strongest storm of the name: highest category, then highest wind, then lowest pressure, then the earliest (R5). The one line on the parchment follows fixed rules (R10): a hurricane says yes with year and category; a name that only made tropical storms says so; a name never used says where it stands on the official lists (R6), or that the sea is still.
“Spelled differently?” lists names one letter away, or two for names of six letters or more (R7). “Same year, same letter” lists the other storms of the strongest storm's year that start with the same letter (R8). The bar compares with all names: 295 of 553 used names, 53 %, had at least one major hurricane (R9).
Each sheet is a plain latitude and longitude map, with east-west distances scaled by the cosine of the sheet's middle latitude (R12). Pacific storms go on the East Pacific sheet; Atlantic storms that stay inside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean go on that sheet; all others on the Atlantic sheet. A track that leaves the sheet is cut at the edge with an arrow.
The line is drawn through NOAA's six-hourly positions. Its width follows the wind, from 1.2 to 7.2 pixels between 25 and 185 knots (R13); fine dots mark rows where the storm was extratropical, a low, a wave or a disturbance. Ticks across the line are landfalls. The round ink seal sits where the storm peaked.
The small stamp under the name plate is the storm's own record in the NOAA file (R14): the ocean and the storm's number that season, the year, and how many position rows (“fixes”) the record holds.
A death toll is shown only as a short quote from the storm's NHC Tropical Cyclone Report, with a link (R11). We never add them up or take a number from anywhere else. Storms without a quote here simply have none yet.
Illustration: AI-generated (Gemini), edited by plusbeauxjours. Coastlines (Natural Earth), the route, the ticks, the seal's number and every word are drawn by code from the data.
Atlantic, East Pacific and Central Pacific storms that had a name: 1950 through 2025. Not included: West Pacific typhoons and every other ocean. A name used only there shows as never used.
2026 is preliminary · NHC season summary, Nov 13, 2026. Only the name and the storm's type are shown for 2026, as a dotted mark, with no track and no wind. The full record replaces it when NOAA publishes the next HURDAT2 file.
Historical NOAA best-track records, not forecasts. For a storm now, follow the National Hurricane Center and local officials.
This is not safety advice. A name says nothing about what a future storm will do.
Drawn by plusbeauxjours from NOAA HURDAT2. Not a NOAA or National Weather Service product.
The Atlantic, and the East and Central Pacific, for named storms since 1950. Those are the two files in NOAA's HURDAT2 database. West Pacific typhoons and storms in other oceans are not included, so a name used only there shows as never used here.
NOAA's National Hurricane Center says a name is taken off the list when a storm was so deadly or costly that using it again would be insensitive. Another name with the same first letter takes its place. A retired name is never used again in that ocean.
The line is as thick as the wind was strong: thin at 25 knots, thickest at 185 knots, the highest wind in these records. Where the line turns to fine dots the storm was not tropical yet, or no longer.
The landfall flag only exists in parts of the database. NOAA's files carry no landfall rows for Atlantic storms from 1976 to 1982, or for Pacific storms before 1989. For those storms the table says “not flagged” instead of zero.
Last updated 2026-11-14 · Data: NOAA National Hurricane Center, HURDAT2