Shropshire Star

Storms in the UK: Why do we name them?

In 2015 the Met Office invited members of the public to start naming storms - and let's face it, what more do we like talking about more than the weather?

Published

This is pilot project was designed to help raise awareness of severe weather before it hits - and storms are given names when they have the potential for 'medium' or 'high' winds.

"In this way the public will be better placed to keep themselves, their property and businesses safe," the Met Office website says - something which we in Shropshire and Mid Wales can relate to after damage and flooding in recent years.

  • The names that will be used this year are:

Supporting image.

You may be wondering why some of the letters are missing from the storm naming alphabet.

Well, the answer is that the US National Hurricane Center, which names hurricanes, does not use names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z and our very own Met Office, in partnership with irish counterpart, Met Eireann have followed suitbecause storm systems often develop over the North Atlantic.

The first storm named in the UKwas back in November 2015 when Storm Abigail which bought disruption to the country.

Since then there have been a number of named storms - and yes, we'll be at it again next year with the naming of storms being opened up to the public again - although of course, the same name will not be used more than once.