Over the course of the past month, the UK has been hit with Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis, which have brought strong winds and heavy rain, leading to flooding across many areas, including South Wales, Hertfordshire and Worcestershire. More recently, communities across the UK are preparing for further flooding from Storm Jorge, which is making its way here over the weekend. But, firstly, why are these storms named?

 

Over the centuries, storms have been named in many different ways across the world, for example the names of boats, saints, or even the month it occurred. However, the Met Office have only recently been giving human names to storms, for just the last six years, with the intention of increasing their awareness of how dangerous they can be. Giving a storm a name means people can look up how it will impact them, so it is easier to follow the progress of a storm on the TV, radio, or on social media. Derrick Ryall from the Met Office even stated that "[They] have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises awareness of severe weather before it strikes." So, how are these storms named?

 

At first, the Met Office used social media to collect a list of names. Overall, 10,000 potential names were submitted and the list of names was sorted by the organisation's staff members. In the summer of 2019, the Met Office reopened their social media call for storm names and said that thousands of suggestions were received. The names alternate between male and female and run from A-Z in the alphabet, just like in the US. The decision to name a weather system is based on the likely impact, based on strength and severity, and the probability that potential impact will actually occur, so generally if there is a red or amber warning for the weather, it will be named.

 

The start of September 2019 marked the beginning of a new storm season and the Met Office and Met Éireann selected 21 names. The names are: Atiyah; Brendan; Ciara; Dennis; Ellen; Francis; Gerda; Hugh; Iris; Jan; Kitty; Liam; Maura; Noah; Olivia; Piet; Roisin; Samir; Tara; Vince; and Willow.

 

Interestingly, from the vast selection of names given to the offices to pick, there have consequently been names which have been rejected. This may be due to overlap with retired storm names from the Atlantic, North Pacific, Australian, South-West Indian regions. Other names were discounted because they were not ‘proper names’, according to documents from the Met Office. These included Apocalypse, Asda, Big Boss, Bluetooth, Hades, Megatron, Root Ripper, Stormageddon, Ssswetcaroline, Vader, Voldemort and even Branch Wobbler. Although creative, these names were deemed incongruous and were therefore excluded.

 

By Sahana Motta