Australia’s 2025-26 tropical cyclone season is almost here and the names that will be used for cyclones throughout the season have been locked in.

The Australian tropical cyclone season runs from the beginning of November to the end of April. During this six-month period, we usually see around 9-11 tropical cyclones in the Australian region, with 4-5 of these typically becoming severe tropical cyclones (category 3 or higher on the Australian scale).

This season has the potential to be see a near to above average number of tropical cyclones in the Australian region due to an abundance of warm sea surface temperatures to the north of Australia and a weak La Niña-like pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The warm oceans to the north of Australia also help to increase the proportion of severe tropical cyclones this season.

Tropical cyclone names

Naming tropical cyclones in the Australian region is the responsibility of the Bureau of Meteorology and has been occurring since the 1960s. These names are assigned using a predetermined list that runs in alphabetical order and alternates between male and female names.

The next 11 tropical cyclone names that will be used for systems forming in Australia’s area of responsibility are shown below, starting with Fina.

Image: Names that will be used in the 2025-26 tropical cyclone season.

Tropical cyclone names can be retired when a system causes significant damage or loss of life. There have been more than 130 names permanently retired in the Australian region, including:

• Tracy – The small but destructive system that hit Darwin early on Christmas Day in 1974.
• Olivia – The tropical cyclone that produced a wind gust of 408 km/h at Barrow Island, WA, in 1996. This is the current world record for the strongest wind gust ever observed directly.
• Debbie – A powerful severe tropical cyclone that hit eastern Qld in March 2017 before spreading flooding rain towards southeast Qld and northern NSW.
• Alfred – A slow-moving tropical cyclone that caused more than $1 billion damage and gained lots of media attention as it approached southeast Queensland earlier this year.

It is not possible to know how many tropical cyclones will cross the Australian coast this season, or where they will strike. However, at least one tropical cyclone has made landfall over the Australian coastline in every season since reliable records began in the 1970s.