Met Office to name next season’s big storms after UK weather warriors | UK News

Around a third of new major storms are set to be named after Brits working to protect people from severe weather.

The Met Office, which decides names along with Ireland’s Mett Eirann and the Dutch weather service, is bringing in new naming procedures for the latest forecasting season, which runs from September to next August.

Storm names were previously chosen by meteorologists based on an alphabetic list of names alternating between men’ and women’s names.

Met says it wants to highlight public servants and other people who help organise the response to dangerous weather events.

People can submit suggestions for consideration by the meteorological service.

They include Ciaran Fearon, who works for the Department of Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, sharing information on river levels and coastal flooding.

Debi Garft, who recently retired from the Scottish Government flooding team, has also been nominated after helping to form the Scottish Flood Forum and the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service.

Ciaran said: ‘With the effects of climate change, we are more aware than ever of how weather can affect us all in every aspect of our daily lives.

‘We need to respect each weather event and this work, particularly during periods of severe weather and storms, helps to ensure that we are all as well prepared as possible to help reduce the impact of such events.’

Debi added: ‘It is important that we all take steps to protect ourselves, our family and property by preparing for extreme weather events.’

She highlighted official online flood maps and flood alert services as ‘great first steps’ which people can sign up to.

Met Eireann will include names of famous scientists, such as Jocelyn, after the astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell.

The Netherland’s names will be based on suggestions by the Dutch public during visits to the forecaster throughout the year.

Will Lang, head of situational awareness at the Met Office, said: ‘Naming storms helps to ease communication of severe weather and provides clarity when people could be impacted by the weather.’

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