2008 What-might-have-been Atlantic hurricane season (Cooper)

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was a hyperactive, deadly, and very destructive season. It featured 17 named storms, of which 10 became hurricanes and 5 became major hurricanes. The season officially started on June 1 and ended on November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin.

Storm names
The following list of names was used for named storms that formed in the North Atlantic in 2008. The names not retired from this list were used again in the 2014 season. This was the same list used in the 2002 season, with the exceptions of Ike and Laura, which replaced Isidore and Lili, respectively. The names Ike, Omar, Paloma, Rene, and Sally were used for the first time this year. Laura was previously used in 1971.

Retirement
On April 22, 2009, at the 31st session of the RA IV hurricane committee, the World Meteorological Organization retired the names Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Rene from its rotating name lists, and they will not be used again for another Atlantic hurricane. They were replaced with Gonzalo, Hailey, Isaias, and Ramiro for the 2014 season.