‘Sunshine’ storm for Wales this winter

THE Met Office has been ridiculed for choosing the Welsh name Heulwen for its 2020-21 storm season list.

The agency revealed that the girl’s name had been added to the list for this year’s strongest weather systems.

But Welsh speakers reacted with mockery at the news of the list - due to the fact Heulwen means sunshine or sun-blessed.

GP Eilir Hughes said on Twitter: “Oh the irony when storm Heulwen hits us. ’What does ‘Heulwen’ mean? ’Sunshine mate. It means sunshine’”

BBC weatherman Owain Wyn

Evans said: “New storm names announced today dahlings.

“FYI- Heulwen is ‘sunshine’ in Welsh. Who’s looking forward to Storm Sunshine?!”

A third person said: “Heulwen is probably the least stormy name they could have added to the list!!”

Another said: “It’s nice to see a Welsh name in the list, and I’m sure Heulwen will be fine in English weather forecasts, but I’m really looking forward to the S4C weather forecast talking about the oncoming ‘sunshine storm’.

The Met Office defended the decision, and said: “We put out a call for names to the public. We had thousands of suggestions. There were quite a lot of interesting names on the list. We’re keen to have a very diverse list of names.

“H was going to be female this year [it was Hugh last time]. A popular female name was Heulwen.

“We check all the meanings of the names beforehand.

“The meaning of Heulwen is sun-blessed.

“We were more than happy to use it.”

Now heading into its sixth year, the Name our Storms collaboration aims to raise awareness of the potential impact of severe weather before it arrives.