Come On Aileen, Brian, Caroline, Dylan

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14 September 2017 | Updated 01 January 1970

Following Storm Aileen, the next 21 storm names have been announced so you know who will be trying to knock things on or off your building from now to 2018 .

The Met Office has now issued the list of 21 storm names that should take us in to 2018. Aileen is followed by Brian, Caroline and Dylan - alternating female to male and with no Q U X Y Z to fall in line with international naming conventions, particularly the US Hurricane Centre naming convention for the North Atlantic.

The gender of the first storm name alternates each year. So Angus was first in the 2016-17 season.

Why give storms a name?

Surveys conducted after named storms in 2016/17 have shown further increases in awareness and action taken in response to people hearing of a named storm. Storm Doris for example achieved an 89% awareness score with 94% of those responders finding the severe weather warning useful. 82% of people that took action ahead of Storm Doris felt they were right to do so.

Derrick Ryall, Head of Public Weather Services at the Met Office, told ThisWeekinFM: “Last year was another successful pilot of the storm naming project and it’s great to be now making it operational. Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK, crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or their property.”

Gerald Fleming, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann, said: "Last winter was a very quiet one weather-wise and we only worked our way through five named storms, from Angus to Ewan. 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 UK Met Office to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather."

When does a storm get a name?

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

Article written by Cathryn Ellis | Published 14 September 2017

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