Names that go down a storm
I’M officially a storm. Well, my name is on this year’s list.
Storm Daisy is just one of the storm names announced for the 2022/23 season by the Met Office, in partnership with Ireland’s Met Éireann and KNMI of The Netherlands.
The storm naming project began with storm Abigail in 2015. Since then it has been successful in helping to raise awareness and inform the public of the risks of upcoming storms.
Antoni, Betty and Cillian will be the first named storms for the group this year, followed by yours truly, then running through each letter of the alphabet, ending in Wouter (vow-ter).
There are no storms that start with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z as the US National Hurricane Centre traditionally leaves out names that begin with these letters and the Met Office wanted to follow the same rule.
Antoni will be the first storm of the new season, and will be named when a system is forecast to cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands. In addition to strong winds, impacts from rain and snow will also be considered.
The Met Office’s names in the list Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain - have come through submissions from the public.
Betty was the outright winner of a public vote on Met Office Twitter, with over 12,000 votes cast to select the name for the letter B.
KNMI’S selected names, including Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna and Loes, are named after influential Dutch scientists.
Met Éireann’s submissions include Cillian, Fleur, Íde, and Nelly.
Met Office Head of Situational Awareness Will Lang, who leads responses in times of severe weather, said: “We know from seven years of doing this that naming storms works. Last year, Storms Arwen and Eunice brought some severe impacts to the UK.
“We know that naming storms helps to raise awareness and give the public the information they need to stay safe in times of severe weather.
“It provides clarity for the public when they need it most.”