The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Friends, family and pet names are storming up the weather charts
A“whirlwind” relative, a “quickas-lightning” goalkeeper, and a daughter who “leaves a trail of destruction” are among friends, family members and pets to feature in a new list of storm names.
More than 10,000 suggestions were submitted to the Met Office for the list of names for the strongest weather systems to hit the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands over the coming year.
The first storm of the year, which runs from September 2021 to the end of August 2022, will be called Arwen, a name thought to be of Welsh origin and popularised by JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings books.
Kim, Logan, Ruby and Dudley are among the names put forward by the UK public and selected by the Met Office, along with Met Eireann and Dutch national weather forecasting service the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).
A Met Office spokesman said Kim was nominated in recognition of a “whirlwind” relative and a
“It makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events
self-confessed weather watcher, while Logan, a name of Scottish origin, was nominated by several parents and grandparents, including a mention of a grandson who “runs through the house like a tornado” and another who is “as quick as lightning” when playing as a goalkeeper.
Ruby made the final cut after being nominated by a pet owner whose cat “comes in and acts like a storm” and a parent whose daughter “leaves a trail of destruction” when she enters the house.
The naming of storms aims to raise awareness of the potential impact of severe weather events and help people to stay safe and protect themselves and their property before the storm arrives.
Storms will be named when they are deemed to cause medium or high impacts from strong winds, rain or snow.
KNMI director-general Gerard van der Steenhoven said that: “Storms are not confined to national borders.
“It makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events.”