Met Office launches search for storm names amongst UK public ahead of new season

The Met Office wants to know if your Uncle James moves like a whirlwind or your best friend causes an impact as the weather experts search for new storm names.

The UK public are being asked for their input as the Met Office is searching for the next round of names ahead of the storm season.

In partnership with Met Éireann and KNMI – the forecasting services for Ireland and the Netherlands – each group will get to name selected letters in the alphabet, reflecting the diversity of the three countries.

Names are selected for each letter of the alphabet, except for Q, U, X, Y and Z, ‘in keeping with storm naming conventions’, according to the Met Office.

The Met Office UK has launched their search for new storm names (Photo: Cody Greenwood).

People can submit as many suggestions as they choose and also have the option of adding a reason for their suggestion to help it in consideration.

The Met Office will then choose from some of the most popular names suggested.

Will Lang, head of civil contingencies at the Met Office said: “It’s great to go out to the UK public to get some suggestions of names.

"It’s incredibly important that everyone understands the potential impacts of severe weather and if having the public submit names for our next round of storms helps them engage in the subject then it’s a great way of raising awareness.

“When storms come, we are obviously at the forefront of assessing its impacts on the people of the UK, and communicating that information succinctly is incredibly important during those times.

"That’s why storms need names, so people, the media and our meteorologists can better speak about potential impacts when a storm is in the forecast."

Once the storm names are all submitted, the Met Office will work with Met Éireann and KNMI to determine the definitive list of storm names for the 2021/22 storm season, which will begin at the start of September 2021.

When the criteria for naming a storm are met, either the Met Office, Met Éireann or KNMI can name a storm, providing it hasn’t already been named by another European meteorological group.

Submissions are now open for the next round of storm names and can be submitted through the Met Office website. Entries will close on June 28 this year.

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