Northern Ireland

New names announced as `storm season' begins

Going for sandbags after the River Shimna in Newcastle, Co Down burst its banks when Storm Francis hit Northern Ireland, causing serious flooding in the Bryansford area. Picture by Alan Lewis/Photopress
Going for sandbags after the River Shimna in Newcastle, Co Down burst its banks when Storm Francis hit Northern Ireland, causing serious flooding in the Bryansford area. Picture by Alan Lewis/Photopress Going for sandbags after the River Shimna in Newcastle, Co Down burst its banks when Storm Francis hit Northern Ireland, causing serious flooding in the Bryansford area. Picture by Alan Lewis/Photopress

WHILE Storm Aiden could be here soon, if Storm Saidhbhín ever hits Ireland it will have been a "really punishing season", according to Met Éireann, as meteorologists unveiled a new list of names for 2020/21.

Met Éireann, the UK Met Office and the Dutch National Weather Service (KNMI) have worked together to compile storm names based on suggestions from the public.

They are in alphabetical order, alternating between genders, although names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used.

A storm is named when orange or red level winds are forecast to affect a wide land area and there may be `high impact' rain or snow.

The list deliberately includes some names that reflect the three nations' diversity.

Naming storms was first introduced by Met Éireann and the UK Met Office in 2015 and they were joined by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in 2019, forming the West group.

The neighbouring southwest group is made up of Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium and once a storm is named it retains it when moving into different waters, as was the case with Ophelia and Lorenzo (named by the US National Hurricane Center), and Emma which was christened by IPMA in Portugal.

Evelyn Cusack of Met Éireann chairs the European Met Services' Storm Naming Working Group.

"The naming of storms by National Met Services (as well as colour coding weather warnings as yellow, orange or red) provides a clear, authoritative and consistent message to the public and prompts people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property," she said.

"The storm names also add an extra interest for people with particular excitement in a family when one of their names appears in the list.

"We mostly pick names that can be easily pronounced but some are less generally recognised. Perhaps (hopefully) we won’t get as far as Heulwen, a striking Welsh girl's name, but for the non-Welsh among us we have included an aid to pronounce it just in case (Hail –wen).

"But although I would love in theory to be able to use the Irish name Saidhbhín if we get that far down the list, it will have been a really punishing season."

Will Lang of the Met Office said: "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."

Gerard van der Steenhoven of KNMI said it "gladly continue" the collaboration.

"As storms are not confined to national borders, it makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events."