Met Office announce new 2018/19 storm names

Are you a storm waiting to happen?

The Met Office and Met Éireann, today reveal the list of storm names for the coming season.

First introduced in 2015, this is the fourth year the Met Office and Met Éireann (the meteorological service in the Irish Republic) have jointly run the ‘Name our Storms’ scheme, aimed at raising awareness of severe weather before it hits.

This year the first storm will be ‘male’ and named Ali, while the second storm will be ‘female’ and named Bronagh,  following the alternating male/female pattern established by the US National Hurricane Center in the 1970’s. 

What will the next 12 months bring?

Evelyn Cusack, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann, said: “The last 12 months have seen some extreme weather around the Globe as well as here at home. While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one we are prepared with a whole new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us. As before, Met Éireann forecasters will work in close co-operation with our colleagues from the  Met Office in the UK to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather.”

This season’s names have once again been compiled from a list of suggestions submitted by the public, choosing some of the most popular names but also selecting names that reflect the nations, culture and diversity of Britain and Ireland.  As in previous years, Q, U, X, Y and Z will not be used, to comply with the international storm naming conventions.

Why do we name storms?

Derrick Ryall, Head of Public Weather Services at the Met Office, said: “Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK, providing a consistent message to the public and crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.”

When is a storm named?

A storm will be named on the basis of ‘medium’ or ‘high’ potential impacts from wind but also include the potential impacts of rain and snow, i.e. storms will be named for weather systems which we expect an Amber or Red warning will eventually be issued by Met Éireann and/or the Met Office’s National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS).