The storm names for 2018/2019 have been published. Since 2015, both Met Éireann and the UK Met Office have jointly run a ‘name our storms’ scheme in a bid to raise awareness of severe weather before it hits.

The names are compiled from a list of suggestions submitted by the public, choosing some of the most popular names but also selecting names that reflect the culture and diversity of Ireland and Britain.

Every letter in the alphabet is used outside of Q, U, X, Y and Z in order to comply with international storm naming convention.

The names

This year a number of traditional Irish names such as Saoirse, Bronagh and Niamh have been selected while Wales is represented with the name Wyn. Some less common names such as Violet, Tristan and Freya are also set to be used.

Gareth Southgate receives recognition for England’s World Cup achieves with Gareth chosen as the storm beginning with G. Idris Elba’s rise in the acting world is also acknowledged with Idris also on the list.

This year the first storm will be ‘male’ and named Ali, while the second storm will be ‘female’ and named Bronagh, following the alternating male/female pattern established by the US National Hurricane Centre in the 1970s

Naming storms

A storm will be named when an orange or red wind warning is expected to be issued by Met Éireann and/or the Met Office. The busiest storm season was in 2015/16 when there was 11 named storms.

Derrick Ryall, Head of Public Weather Services at the Met Office, said: “Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK and Ireland, providing a consistent message to the public and crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.”

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