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Chronicle Live

National

Sophie Finnegan

The Met Office unveils storm names for 2022-23 - including Antoni, Betty, and Cillian

Met Office Glen Khalid KNMI United Kingdom Martin Lewis Met Éireann

The Met Office has revealed the full list of storm names for the 2022/23 season - including Antoni, Betty, and Cillian.

It is the eighth year of the storm naming project, in partnership with Met Éireann and Dutch national weather forecasting service the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, to help raise awareness and inform the public of the risks of upcoming storms. And the Met Office has revealed that Antoni will be the first named storm of the new season.

Storms will be named when a system is forecast to cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in the UK, Ireland, or the Netherlands. In addition to strong winds, impacts from rain and snow will also be considered in the naming process.

The names have come through submissions from the public, with Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain some of those submitted. Betty came out on top of a public vote on Met Office Twitter, with more than 12,000 votes cast to select the name for the letter B.

KNMI’s selected names, including Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna, and Loes, are named after influential Dutch scientists. Met Éireann’s submissions include Cillian, Fleur, Íde, and Nelly.

Met Office Head of Situational Awareness Will Lang, who leads responses in times of severe weather, said: "We know from seven years of doing this that naming storms works. 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."

The Met Office post-event surveys show 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 their business.

Will Lang continued: "Recent impactful storms demonstrated our ongoing need to communicate severe weather in a clear way to help the public protect themselves. Naming storms is just one way that we know helps to raise awareness of severe weather and provides clarity for the public when they need it most."

Heavy rain in Newcastle Upon Tyne (Newcastle Chronicle)

Evelyn Cusack, head of forecasting division in Met Éireann, welcomes storm naming as a very important tool in National Met Services' warnings arsenal. She said: "The annual unveiling of the new storm names on September 1 creates great media and public interest. More importantly though, during the winter when a storm is named for potential Orange/Red impacts, it creates a great media and public ‘call to action’ helping to save lives and property."

Head of forecasting at KNMI, Jan Rozema said: "Chances are very high that severe storms will affect all three countries involved: Ireland, the UK, and The Netherlands. News on severe weather is not limited to national boundaries, so the message to the UK, Irish and Dutch inhabitants will be much appreciated and understood if we share the same information, starting with storm names.

"This year we had a good example: three named storms affected the Netherlands within a week. A rare red warning was issued for storm Eunice, one of the most severe storms in fifty years. Storms Dudley and Franklin also brought significant weather impacts. For us at KNMI, it is a great privilege and advantage to work in close co-operation with our colleagues from Ireland and the UK in the communication about storms."

Storms are named when they could cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in one of the partner countries and help provide consistent, authoritative messaging in times of severe weather.

For Storm Eunice, which was the strongest storm to impact England and Wales since February 2014, 95% of people within the red warning area in the southeast found the warning useful. Meanwhile, National Highways reported 21% less traffic on the roads in England on February 18 as people amended plans to stay safe during impactful storms.

If a storm is named by a different storm naming group and impacts the UK, the given name will be used in communications, as occurred with Storm Malik in January this year. In addition, if the remnants of a hurricane has moved across the Atlantic to impact UK weather, this would be referred to as an ex-hurricane with its previously given name.

Here's a full list of the 2022/23 storm names in full: