See Which Storms Will Have Disney Names This Hurricane Season
With Disney World being in Florida, it’s inevitably impacted by hurricanes each year. Some storms have worse impacts than others, with the parks even having to shut down several times.
Image credit: Str/Xinhua/Zuma
Hurricanes and tropical storms are all named, and the list of names used every year is different. Sometimes, we even get storms that share the same names as Disney characters!
Photo: NOAA
The storm names have been released for the 2023 hurricane season, and there are some Disney characters among them!
Disney Storm Names
The 2023 list of storm names has been released, and AccuWeather shared all of them on Twitter today. Do you see any familiar Disney characters?
Atlantic hurricane season 2023 storm names:https://t.co/jFjzOvkDLF pic.twitter.com/ym7bcltb9E
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) March 29, 2023
Cindy
The first one we noticed is Cindy, which obviously made us think of Cinderella. Cinderella Castle is the main focal point of Magic Kingdom at Disney World — along with having other major impacts around the parks!
Hurricane Irma
We can’t know which storms will develop to the severity of having a big impact on Disney World, but it would be pretty ironic if Cindy shut down the park with her own castle in it.
Don
Next up, we have Don, which made us think of Donald Duck right away! The classic Disney character is all around the parks.
Donald is known for having a bit of a temper, so if his storm turns out to be anything like him, we do NOT want to mess with it.
Gert
Gert might not be the official name of any Disney characters (unless we’re forgetting someone?), but Gertie sure is! Gertie is the name of the dinosaur over in Hollywood Studios’ Echo Lake.
Gertie in Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Gertie is a BIG part of the lake and she is an ice cream stand! She is actually a tribute to Gertie the Trained Dinosaur, who was one of the first popular animated characters in the history of film.
Jose
The next name that made us think of a Disney character is Jose! José Carioca is one of the Three Caballeros along with Panchito and Donald Duck (two of the three Caballeros are storm names this year!).
D23
You can see him in the Disney film Saludos Amigos, or just hop on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros in EPCOT’s Mexico Pavilion! You can also see him in places like the Adventure Friends Cavalcade in Magic Kingdom.
And, don’t forget that there is also a José as one of the main hosts at Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.
Nigel
Nigel is the very helpful pelican from Finding Nemo! The brown pelican is very good friends with the fish in the tank at the dentist’s office, and he helps Marlin and Dory find Nemo.
Image Credit: Disney
Another Disney Nigel that comes to mind is Dr. Nigel Channing, who is from the Imagination Institute and can be found hosting Journey Into Imagination with Figment in EPCOT.
Philippe
Philippe sounds French, right? Well, that isn’t very surprising, because it is the name of Belle and Maurice’s horse in Beauty and the Beast!
Photo: Screen Rant
While Philippe is a loyal and friendly horse, he also gets frightened very easily. We hope a storm named after him has way less nervous energy!
Other Notable Names
There are a few other names on the list that might make you think of some Disney people or characters. Bret could remind you of Bret Iwan, who has been the voice of Mickey Mouse for several years now.
Photo: Disney
Emily also made us think of the Emily from Toy Story 2, who was Jessie’s former owner. She gave her away as she grew up, which brought on one of the saddest Disney and Pixar songs ever, “When She Loved Me.”
Photo: Pixar Wiki
Finally, we have Tammy, who reminded us about the minor character Tammy Squirrel, who is in one of the Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers episodes.
Upcoming Hurricane Season
Hurricane season is from June 1st through November 30th. AccuWeather already has an initial forecast for the season.
Last year, the overall number of named storms was 14, which is a much lower number than we saw in 2021 and 2020.
Photo: Travel and Leisure
So, what’s happening in 2023? AccuWeather said it will be less active than the majority of seasons since 1995 and may have a similar number of storms as 2022. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any major storms.
Photo: ABC News
Right now, projections are that the 2023 season will have 11-15 named storms. Four to eight of those storms are expected to become hurricanes, with one to three of those becoming major hurricanes (a category 3-5).
Image Credit: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
They are also predicting that there will be 2-4 direct U.S. impacts. Last year, there were 4 direct U.S. impacts. Remember, this also includes Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Photo: GREGG NEWTON/AFP/Getty Images
We’ll keep you updates on this upcoming hurricane season as it draws closer, so stay tuned for more news and info.
