Is it Tropical Storm Debby or Debbie? A look at the previous Debby / Debbie / Debra storms

As Tropical Storm Debby — soon to be Hurricane Debby , according to the National Hurricane Center — approaches a Monday morning landfall in the Big Bend area of the Gulf Coast, you might be wondering why the name sounds so familiar.

There have been a lot of storms named Debby, or Debbie, or Debra over the years. Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane name lists repeat every six years unless a storm is so deadly or costly that its name is retired from future lists.

The most notable was 2012's Tropical Storm Debby , which brought torrential rainfall, storm surges and flooding to the Big Bend area and Panhandle. The storm caused an estimated $250 million in damages, impacting over a thousand structures and causing eight deaths, seven of them in Florida.

Here are the Debbys, Debbies and Debras that have passed our way.

Is the current storm Tropical Storm Debby or Tropical Storm Debbie?

Tropical Storm Debby is the one currently working its way up the Gulf Coast of Florida. It's expected to become Hurricane Debby by Sunday night.

Debbie and Debra were used in the four rotating lists of storm names from 1955 to 1972, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) replaced them with nine lists. Debra continued to be used until 1978.

In 1979 NOAA turned control over the naming of storms to the World Meteorological Organization , which opted for six lists that included male names and names from other cultures. From that point on, Debby was the only version used for Atlantic tropical cyclones.

Previous storms named Debby, Debbie and Debra

• 1959, Hurricane Debra: Category 1 hurricane made landfall in Texas . $7 million in damage, no deaths.

• 1957, Tropical Storm Debbie:Made landfall near Fort Walton Beach, Minor damage, mostly from flooding, but it was indirectly responsible for four deaths .

• 1961, Hurricane Debbie:Peaked as a Category 1 hurricane, this Debbie curved north and struck Ireland with the remnants hitting Norway and the then-Societ Union, causing 78 deaths and an estimated $50 million in damages.

• 1963, Hurricane Debra: Strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane but dissipated before it reached the U.S.

• 1965, Tropical Storm Debbie: Dissipated before hitting Louisiana but caused $25 million in damages.

• 1969, Hurricane Debbie:This Debbie peaked at Category 3 but missed Bermuda before traveling north and ultimately skirting Newfoundland.

• 1978, Tropical Storm Debra: Made landfall in Lousiana , minimal damage

• 1982, Hurricane Debby: Peaked at a Category 4 but never approached U.S. coast. Minimal damage.

• 1988, Hurricane Debby:Made landfall in Mexico as a short-lived Category 1 , bringing massive flooding that left about 50,000 people homeless. At least 20 deaths have been attributed to this storm.

• 1994, Tropical Storm Debby:Weak tropical storm that nonetheless cost $194 million in damages and cost nine people their lives in the Caribbean.

• 2000, Hurricane Debby: Category 1 hurricane that caused $735,000 in damages to the Greater and Lesser Antilles and one indirect death.

• 2006, Tropical Storm Debby: Formed off the coast of Africa but weakened soon afterward.

• 2012, Tropical Storm Debby:Caused extensive flooding in North and Central Florida when it made landfall near Steinhatchee. Rivers rose, many homes were flooded and two bridges were damaged, with an estimated $250 million in damages and eight people killed, five directly.

• 2018, Tropical Storm Debby: Formed in the Atlantic , but did not come near land.

• 2024, Tropical Storm Debby:The current storm out there.

When is the next storm named Debby?

Assuming this one does not cause enough damage or fatalities to be retired, we could see another Tropical Storm or Hurricane Debby in 2030.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tropical Storm Debby not the first Debby/Debbie/Debra storm