Keep the names Antoni, Betty and Cillian in mind during the coming year – for the Met Office has revealed they will be the first storms of the season.
The weather service yesterday shared its choice of 21 names for the tempests to come with a selection compiled from public submissions.
The Met Office has run the Name Our Storms campaign annually since 2015 to raise awareness of severe weather before it hits.
Keep the names Antoni, Betty and Cillian in mind during the coming year – for the Met Office has revealed they will be the first storms of the season
Among the names for the 2022/23 season are Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain, which came from email suggestions. Meanwhile, Betty won a public poll on Twitter with more than 12,000 votes cast.
The Met Office came up with the list in partnership with its Irish counterpart Met Eireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).
This year, KNMI selected Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna and Loes in honour of famous Dutch scientists, while Met Eireann chose Cillian, Fleur, Ide and Nelly.
The Met Office has run the Name Our Storms campaign annually since 2015 to raise awareness of severe weather before it hits
Will Lang, head of situational awareness at the Met Office, said: ‘Last year, Storms Arwen and Eunice brought some severe impacts 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 storm is named when it has the potential to cause an amber warning – stipulated by the possibility of road and rail closures, power cuts and the potential risk to life – or red warning where it is ‘very likely’ there will be a risk to life.
In line with the US National Hurricane Centre, names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are excluded.