Last month the Met Office together with Met Éireann announced a pilot project to name storms that may have the potential to affect Britain and/or Ireland during autumn and winter 2015/16.
They received thousands of responses by email, through the Met Office Facebook pages and @metoffice on Twitter.
The
winning names were: Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank,
Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil,
Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.
Image credit: Met Office
To maintain consistency with the naming convention of storms in the North Atlantic, no names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, or Z will be used. This is in keeping with the US National Hurricane Centre's naming policy.
It is hoped that naming storms will help raise awareness of severe weather and ensure greater safety of the public.
To maintain consistency with the naming convention of storms in the North Atlantic, no names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, or Z will be used. This is in keeping with the US National Hurricane Centre's naming policy.
It is hoped that naming storms will help raise awareness of severe weather and ensure greater safety of the public.
A storm will be named when it is deemed to have the potential to cause a substantial impact in the UK and/or Ireland.
If a storm is the remnants of a tropical
storm or hurricane that has moved across the Atlantic, the already
established method of referring to it as, for example "Ex-hurricane X",
will continue.
Text via Press Association
Top image credit: Storm in the Mountains by Albert Bierstadt, via Wikimedia Commons