#NameOurStorms: is it a good idea?

[Jo Farrow]

On 12/04/2023 at 06:56, Weather-history said:

If there is no named storm from the Met Office listings this season, will the Met Office retained the names for next season?

Don't see the point of changing the names if they are not used and that includes letter not used.

 

Seems not as Met Eireann are already asking for 'A' suggestions from a Twitter poll.

[Jo Farrow]

Storm Patricia named this morning, on the day by Meteo France. 

"This Wednesday, a very unusual gale for the season on the coasts of Brittany and the Channel. Strong waves in a context of high tides"

Too late to be that useful

[Jo Farrow]

So Storm Antoni did arrive with Amber warnings for SW Britain for Saturday 5th August. 

There is no need for a new list, just continue with the names we have. The UK has been affected by several of the storms from the Southwestern group, so the letters don't matter, just how important is the social media hype each September and to who?

Edited August 8, 2023 by Jo Farrow
add link to Antoni thread

[Weather-history]

Apparently the Irish Met Office have called the current low, Storm Betty

Bit late with this.

[Nick L]

1 minute ago, Weather-history said:

Apparently the Irish Met Office have called the current low, Storm Betty

Bit late with this.

Just the norm now really.

[Weather-history]

Oddly, the UK Met Office had announced it on their tweet feed before the Irish Met Office did even though it was the Irish who named it. 

 

 

[Nick L]

2 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Oddly, the UK Met Office had announced it on their tweet feed before the Irish Met Office did even though it was the Irish who named it. 

 

 

It almost comes across as "don't blame us guv".

[Jo Farrow]

For all the official reasons that were given when Storm Antoni was named, on a Saturday, not sure why Betty took so long.

 

[The PIT]

Doesn't look like it will have any impact for us all the interesting weather elsewhere.  Certainly a noteworthy event though. If

[Summer Sun]

Storm Names for the 2023/24 season will be released tomorrow.

[The PIT]

Might as well just publish names from Eire, France, Germany, Denmark and Norway met offices as they seem to name the systems first.

[Summer Sun]

The 2023/24 storm names

[Freeze]

1 hour ago, Summer Sun said:

The 2023/24 storm names

I wonder if we'll get to c or d, most of the time we just borrow the names from other countries...

[Jo Farrow]

We have Storm Agnes named Monday morning 25th ready for impacts Weds/Thurs/Friday this week

Well timed naming, useful.

[Jo Farrow]

Choose a STORM NAME   -You can send in your suggestions for next season.

Name our Storms

WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Jo Farrow
email correction

[Jo Farrow]

Bit of background to this season's names 

Storm Names: 2023 to 2024 season with Agnes, Babet and Fergus

WWW.NETWEATHER.TV

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Where do the name suggestions come from and who gets to name a storm? A look at the various European Storm Naming groups and the list for 2023/24 starting with Agnes.

 

[Freeze]

There seems to be no consistency on storm naming from year to year, last year there were quite a few storms that would've easily warranted a name had they happened this year, but this year they seem to be naming every other low pressure system. It seems to me that one year they lower the bar but the next they raise it?  

[Jo Farrow]

The UK Met Office did seem to be avoiding the Name our Storms project last season. 

This weekend we've seen Storm Elin and Storm Fergus named by Met Eireann for the gales over Ireland with widespread rain impacts for the UK, and high winds through Irish Sea, for Wales and parts of England.

[jtay]

I like it.

Storms should be named after fossil fuel companies | Climate crisis | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Letter: Instead of giving storms innocuous-sounding first names, making direct links between the polluters and the impact they cause would be a step forward, writes John Uden

 

 

[Jo Farrow]

Whilst this year our Western naming group are already at J, last year there were only and A and B used, for Antoni and Betty.

Whereas a bit further south, the southwestern naming group reached P seeing a lot of storms in the 2022/23 season. 

 

[MattStoke]

Far easier to recall "Storm X" than "The Atlantic low pressure system of date xx/xx/xxxx".

[WYorksWeather]

Definitely agree that the storm naming system is a big improvement. It's really easy to refer to events by their name, and it also makes them much easier to remember.

I also feel like the criteria for naming are reasonably objective and understandable - generally if it's amber warning worthy, it gets a name.

[Metwatch]

2023–24 European windstorm season - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

If you want to see all the European windstorms put in a neat format from various naming groups by different meteorological departments / agencies, Wikpedia is great for that and you can click previous years at the top, very handy. Just like what they do for tropical cyclones.

Storm Daniel, the deadliest system yet in Europe was part of the 2022-23 season even though it was during early September, same with Elias. Over 10000 in Derna, Libya died due to that flooding from a dam failure, and so made the 2022–23 European windstorm season the deadliest yet.

Edited January 25 by Metwatch

[SnowBear]

Personally I think naming storms is leading us down a dangerous path. 

Recently we have seen a number of storms named one after the other, some only a day or so apart. Over time this will lead to apathy, where constant warning being given out start to be ignored due to some storms perhaps not being as strong as first thought, or maybe only effect a very small area. 

Many parts of the UK are windy, I've lived in Cornwall and a severe gale is to many just a good blow, it happens every winter, many times. Many times I've stood on the cliffs and watched the sea boil, sat in bed and hear the tiles ripple, . Similarly other areas have notable localised wind spots, Capel Curig, the Highlands, Pennines and so on. 

I agree naming exceptional storms is warranted, and many in the past would in my view be candidates for naming. But perhaps the threshold is a bit low for now? 

I think also the problem where named storms get into the news, that it might just skim our shores, but essentially ends up being a news item in another country doesn't help that aim of trying to forewarn the population of exceptional weather in our country. 

Eventually what I can see happening is every time a storm gets named for what ends up being a strong to severe gale everything grinds to a halt, same as we see with an inch of snow now. 

To many of us who are old enough to remember the severe winters where we had snow laying for days, drifts measured in feet, icycles from gutter to floor, plus the winter storms... We still got to work, we still went to school (only time school shut was if the boiler broke down alas, and the teachers still got into school too), we were not afraid to face the elements, we dressed accordingly, were aware and without the technology we have now too in being able to look on our phones for the weather forecasts and the weather itself in real time. 

In many ways I do wonder is it right that we are instilling fear for what is really just normal winter weather?

Naming a storm should mean it is in the category of exceptional, phenomenal, a severe storm, hurricane or of hurricane strength, otherwise the reason becomes diluted and apathy takes hold. 

[Robert1981]

  @SnowBear hi I agree with most things u have said on your post. I think if the met office didn't name storms like there do it would be wrong in people eyes there would be complaining so unfortunately whatever the met office does it wouldn't be right.