Going back as far as the 1500s, people have been naming storms. One of the earliest examples to be given a name struck Puerto Rico on 4th October 1526.
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People celebrating the Catholic feast day of St Francis of Assisi were suddenly hit by a devastating hurricane, which they later called San Francisco – another way of spelling St Francis. Naming storms after saints became a popular pastime, although in those days, the weather events didn’t have an official name, as they do today.
The first meteorologist to officially give each storm a name was reputedly Clement Lindley Wragge, who was born in Staffordshire in 1852. He devised names for storms initially using the names of characters from Roman and Greek mythology.
He later named some of the cyclones that struck the southern hemisphere after Australian politicians, when the government failed to award him the post of director of a new meteorological bureau!
The US Air Force Hurricane Office in Miami first started to name tropical cyclones in the late 1940s. At the time, this was merely for internal communications and the names weren’t released to the public. Earlier names were based on the phonetic alphabet of the day: Able, Baker, Charlie and so on.
UK storm naming
In the UK, storm naming began many years later in 2015. The Met Office and Met Éireann, the Republic of Ireland weather service, launched a “Name Our Storms” campaign to raise public awareness of severe weather conditions. People soon latched onto the names, which attracted attention on social media and alerted the public more effectively when there was a severe storm coming, which was the aim.
A storm is named when it is expected to trigger an amber or red warning because of its anticipated “substantial impact”. The Met Office in the UK names a storm and issues a warning when there is a likelihood of a severe storm creating a hazard for people.
Met Éireann uses numerical-based criteria when deciding whether a storm warning should be issued. Wind gusts of up to 80 mph across Ireland would trigger an orange warning, compared with the Met Office, which would consider the potential impact of strong gusts before issuing the warning.
In 2019, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, the KNMI, joined the storm-naming initiative. The organisation said it made sense to give common names to extreme weather events, as storms were not confined to national borders. This is why storms approaching from across Europe have the same name when they arrive in the UK.
How are storm names chosen?
Every year, the three meteorological agencies survey the public and ask for their favourite names -the list of new storm names is compiled from the public’s suggestions. This method reflects the different countries’ diversity.
Storms are named in alphabetical order, following the American trend from the 1940s. As the list comes out annually, people with names beginning with letters at the end of the alphabet are never likely to see theirs used for a storm.
Also, names beginning with less commonly used letters such as Q, U, X, Y and Z are not often chosen by the public as their favourite names for storms. For example, we are highly unlikely to ever witness a Storm Ulysses or Storm Xavier.
How many named storms hit the UK in 2021?
In 2021, the UK was battered by five named storms. Already in 2022, Storm Corrie and Storm Malik have struck British shores, one after the other, at the end of January. Storm Malik was named by the Danish Meteorological Institute, which has now joined the European storm-naming initiative started by the UK.
With both storms arriving in succession, from 28th January to 31st January, they caused widespread chaos and damage. In Scotland, thousands of homes were left without power, public transport was severely disrupted and schools were forced to close.
What is on the list of storm names for 2022?
The storm names in the UK for 2022 include Dudley, Franklin, Herman, Imani and so on. The final name of this year’s list is Willemien, from Holland, but it remains highly unlikely all the names will be used. People are hoping there will never be a time when all the storm names in the alphabet are used in one year.
The UK has been hit by flash flooding 51 times since 2007 and unfortunately, due to climate change, there will be increased risks in the future – so more storm names are likely to be used.
Coping with storms and floods
Storms often leave a lot of devastation and disruption in their wake.
When your property suffers flooding, it can ruin carpets and furniture, causing stress and disruption. Everyday life can become an uphill battle.
After contacting your insurer to make a claim, make a call to the lovely people at Furniture Rental Online for details of our emergency furniture – we’ll help get your life back on track.
Assisting insurers, loss adjusters and claims handlers to complete your claim quickly and efficiently; we can take some of the strain if you suffer a flooding emergency.