The Met Office has released its 2020-21 storm names, suggested by the public, beginning with Storm Aiden and ending with Storm Wilson.
It’s been six years since the Met Office, in league with Met Éireann (the Met Office’s equivalent in Ireland) began naming storms as the Name our Storms collaboration, and last year they welcomed the Dutch equivalent, KNMI, into the fold. The process of naming the storms has given the public across the three nations a chance to feel involved in weather forecasting but more importantly, it has helped raise awareness of storm severity and the risks they can pose.
Will Lang, Head of the Met Office’s National Severe Weather Warning Service said: “We are now entering our sixth year of the Name our Storms campaign and we look forward to working closely with our colleagues in Ireland and the Netherlands once again, continuing to raise awareness of the potential impacts of severe weather in order to keep people across our nations safe.
“The impacts from Storm Ciara and Dennis earlier this year are still fresh in many people’s minds and although it’s too early to anticipate what weather this autumn and winter will bring, we are prepared with a new list of names to help raise awareness of severe weather before it hits.”
Names have been taken from suggestions submitted by the public across all three participating nations, and including a diverse, range representative of each, including Saidhbhín, Heulwen and Klaas. From today, each new storm to hit the UK, Ireland and/or the Netherlands will be named in alphabetical order from the list, starting with Storm Aiden. In keeping with international conventions for naming storms, there are no names for the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z.
Gerard van der Steenhoven, Director General at Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) said: “We gladly continue our collaboration with the UK Met Office and Met Éireann on storm forecasting. As storms are not confined to national borders, it makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events. As many people often travel between our countries, the use of common names will make it a lot easier for them to appreciate the hazards represented by a large storm system. For us at KNMI, it is a great privilege and advantage to work in close co-operation with our colleagues from Ireland and the UK in the communication about storms.”
For more information on Name our Storms, visit the Met Office Storm Centre.