Connected with each year’s Atlantic hurricane season, you can access a list of potential names for tropical storms and hurricanes.
The World Meteorological Organization originates and cycles through six lists every six years.
The current six lists are noted here.
A name is retired and replaced when a storm with that name causes extreme property damage and loss of life.
Oscar is the 15th name on the list for 2024.
Hurricane Oscar as a Category 2 Hurricane on October 30th, 2018, off the northern coast of Africa.
The further you move into an annual list of names, the less likely it is that the hurricane season will be active enough to include a given name. There are exceptions, of course.
For example, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active season on record.
All the potential names for storms were used, with a further nine named storms designated with letters from the Greek alphabet.
But in 2018, the last time Oscar was listed, Hurricane Oscar was the last named storm of the season. In 2024, with Hurricane Oscar already in the record books, it’s possible several more storms lie ahead.
All named storms are a form of tropical cyclone — a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has a closed low-level circulation.
Topical Depression Oscar
Early in a cyclone’s development, as a tropical depression, wind speeds are less than 39 mph. Tropical depressions are not named but are numbered and tracked in case they grow into tropical storms or hurricanes.
Tropical Storm Oscar
When a sufficiently powerful weather system developed on October 19 with a sustained wind speed of 39 mph, Tropical Storm Oscar made its debut.
Hurricane Oscar
When that speed reached 74 mph later in the day, Hurricane Oscar became a reality.
If you live in an area where such a storm system is expected, take all necessary precautions, keep up to date on reports of the storm’s path, and don’t underestimate the potential impact to your community.
The Power of Preparedness
Ensure your family is protected in the face of unexpected challenges with our Disaster Preparedness Guide.
Topics Include:
— Family Communication Plan
— Evacuation Plans
— Care for Pets
— Weather Monitoring
Download Our Disaster Preparedness Guide!
Start your journey to preparedness now and download the guide to learn practical steps for facing any disaster confidently.
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When Was Hurricane Oscar?
The 15th and final named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season grew into a hurricane on October 28.
It continued to grow in strength for the next two days, before shifting back to extratropical storm strength on Halloween.
In 2024, Hurricane Oscar made landfall in Cuba on October 20 and dissipated north of Cuba on October 22.
Where Did Hurricane Oscar Hit?
Hurricane Oscar never made landfall in 2018. It remained far enough out in the Atlantic during its development that it never posed a threat to any communities.
Hurricane Oscar’s landfall in Cuba in 2024 took it across the island in about a day.
What Category Was Hurricane Oscar?
In 2018, Hurricane Oscar reached Category 1 status on October 28 and grew to a Category 2 storm by October 30. Oscar remained at Category 1 on October 19, 2024.
Category 1 Hurricane
A Category 1 hurricane has sustained wind speeds of at least 74 mph 10 meters above the ground surface when averaged over a 1-minute period. A Category 1 designation is used for winds with speeds through 95 mph.
By the time you reach Category 5, those wind speeds are equal or greater than 157 mph.
There is no top limit, so the highest a hurricane can be rated is as a Category 5 regardless of how much its winds exceed 157 mph.
This evaluation system is called the Saffir-Simpson scale, and you can read more about it here.
What Time Will Hurricane Oscar Make Landfall?
If you research, “What time did Hurricane Oscar make landfall?” you won’t find any data because Hurricane Oscar stayed out to sea in 2018. The time of landfall in Cuba in 2024 is just a historic data point with no connection to any future storms.
It’s important to remember there is no correlation between the landfall of a historic hurricane and when a current storm system might reach land.
No data from the past would help you prepare had Oscar become a significant storm in 2024.
It’s wise to stay up to date on weather forecasts and be aware of a specific storm’s estimated landfall if a current storm is predicted to reach your region.
Thanks to satellite and radar imagery, those predictions can be very accurate, giving you plenty of time to prepare.
Don’t make the mistake of waiting until the last minute to reach a safe area.
This article will be updated should more details about Oscar become available in 2024.
How Many People Died in Hurricane Oscar?
Hurricane Oscar caused no loss of life in 2018. Unfortunately, in 2024 Hurricane Oscar took seven lives in its journey across Cuba.
What Was the Path of Hurricane Oscar?
In many cases, the beginning of a hurricane’s path is in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. As that system moves west across the Atlantic, often in the general direction of the Caribbean, it can strengthen and organize into a tropical storm and then a hurricane.
In 2018, Oscar’s entire life cycle was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. After weakening from a hurricane back to an extratropical storm, Oscar took a very long north and northeast path all the way to the Faroe Islands lying between Scotland and Iceland. There it was absorbed by another developing weather system.
In 2024, the tropical cyclone system that became Hurricane Oscar crossed the Atlantic almost directly east to west from the coast of Africa and into the Caribbean before making landfall in Cuba.
Convoy of Hope & Hurricanes
Convoy of Hope is a faith-based, nonprofit organization serving the poor and hungry in dozens of program countries around the world.
Because natural disasters have such a deep and negative impact on communities, Convoy views disaster response as integral to its larger mission. Food, water, and other key resources quickly become scarce following hurricanes and other disasters.
In 2024, Convoy is celebrating its 30th anniversary. For 26 of those years, Convoy has been serving communities impacted by storms, beginning in 1998 with a response to flooding in Del Rio, Texas, that followed that year’s Tropical Storm Charley.
Hurricanes continue to be an annual priority for the organization.
How Convoy Responds to Disasters
1. The Disaster Services team at Convoy’s World Distribution Center follows weather updates closely throughout hurricane season.
To see Convoy’s 2022 response to Hurricane Ian, watch the video above!
2. Days ahead of a predicted landfall, careful planning pulls together the resources intended for distribution in affected communities.
3. Volunteers and team members pack food, water, cleaning supplies, and more before a convoy of trucks heads toward the disaster zone.
4. After a hurricane has passed and a community’s needs become clear, one or more distribution points can begin operation.
5. With the help of local churches and other organizations, volunteers and Convoy team members offload pallets of supplies from semi-trucks and strategically position them across a large parking lot. Soon, residents are driving by gratefully accepting groceries, bottled water, bags of ice, cleaning supplies, and other resources.
Convoy of Hope Disaster Services responds to natural disasters around the world — earthquakes, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and drought — offering help and hope to people facing some of the most challenging circumstances in their lives.
The nonprofit, faith-based organization pursues a driving passion to feed the world through children’s feeding initiatives, community outreach, and disaster response.
