The Met Office has announced the new storm names for the 2022/2023 season, to brand any upcoming gales which could potentially cause an amber or red weather warning.
Launched in 2015, the new storms list accepts public submissions for new titles between September and late August the following year - to coincide with the first days of autumn.
This year, names selected from e-mail submissions were Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain A public vote on Twitter saw Betty win by more than 12,000 ballots.
Met Office head of situational awareness Will Lang, who leads responses in times of severe weather, said naming storms helped raise public awareness. “We know from seven years of doing this that naming storms works,” he explained.
“Last year, Storms Arwen and Eunice brought some severe impacts to the UK and we know that naming storms helps to raise awareness and give the public the information they need to stay safe in times of severe weather.”
A list of possible names are compiled by Irish forecaster Met Eireann, the UK’s Met Office and the Dutch national weather forecasting service KNMI.
KNMI selected Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna and Loes, in honour of famous Dutch scientists. While Met Eireann chose Cillian, Fleur, Ide, and Nelly.
In a press statement, the Met Office said that 98% of those within the red warning area in the southeast for Storm Eunice were aware of the warning, and 91% of those took action to protect themselves, their property or business.
The full list of new names includes:
- Antoni
- Betty
- Cillian
- Daisy
- Elliot
- Fleur
- Glen
- Hendrika
- Ide
- Johanna
- Khalid
- Loes
- Mark
- Nelly
- Owain
- Priya
- Ruadhan
- Sam
- Tobias
- Val
- Wouter
If you have a name suggestion for the next storm list, you can send it to the Met Office at nameourstorms@metoffice.gov.uk.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
