Met Éireann has published a new list of storm names for the upcoming season from September 2020 to August 31st 2021.
In partnership with the UK Met Office and the Dutch National Weather Service, it has unveiled the list of names running from A to W.
The three national meteorological services worked together to compile the list of names based on suggestions from the public, and to include some names that reflect the three nations’ diversity.
Once a storm is named by any national met service globally, that name is retained if the storm moves into our waters.
For example, Ophelia and Lorenzo were named by the National Hurricane Centre in the US and Emma was named by Portugal's IPMA.
The names are in alphabetical order, alternating between genders with Q, U, X, Y and Z excluded.
This naming of storms has been shown to raise awareness of severe weather and help with citizen safety.
A storm is named when orange or red level winds are forecast to impact over a wide land area.
Source: Met ÉireannEvelyn Cusack is head of forecasting at Met Éireann: "The naming of storms by national met services as well as colour coding weather warnings as yellow, orange or red provides a clear, authoritative and consistent message to the public and prompts people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.
"The storm names also add an extra interest for people with particular excitement in a family when one of their names appears in the list.
"We mostly pick names that can be easily pronounced but some are less generally recognised.
"Perhaps - hopefully - we won’t get as far as Heulwen, a striking Welsh girl’s name, but for the non-Welsh among us we have included an aide to pronounce it just in case (Hail –wen).
"But although I would love in theory to be able to use the Irish name Saidhbhín if we get that far down the list it will have been a really punishing season".
Will Lang, head of the national severe weather warning service at the UK's Met Office, added: "We are now entering our sixth year of the name our storms campaign and we look forward to working closely with our colleagues in Ireland and the Netherlands once again, continuing to raise awareness of the potential impacts of severe weather in order to keep people across our nations safe."
And Gerard van der Steenhoven, director-general at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said: "We gladly continue our collaboration with the UK Met Office and Met Éireann on storm forecasting.
"As storms are not confined to national borders, it makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events."
Rainfall across Ireland has increased by about 6% in the last 30 years which is consistent with a warmer atmosphere being able to hold more moisture.
And while the frequency of north Atlantic storms may be expected to reduce somewhat, their intensity is expected to increase - resulting in more destructive and harmful impacts.
