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What are the storm names in the UK for 2018 and how are they chosen?

June 14, 2018

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What are the storm names in the UK for 2018 and how are they chosen? — The eye of the storm of the Eileen of the storm? (Picture: Getty)

You may well have noticed that the UK has been hit by some incredibly brutal storms in the past couple of years.

But at least these storms have been assigned human names! We know who to get angry at once the weather takes a nasty turn.

Yes, the likes of Storm Desmond and Storm Aileen have been ricocheting across our country, and some of these storms may have even shared a name with you.

So why have these storms been given names, and who decides what theyre to be called?

UK storms of 2018

Storm Eleanor – 2-3 January
Storm Fionn – 16 January
Storm David – 18 January
Storm Georgina – 24 January
Storm Hector – 13-14 June

Thirteen more names have already been picked for upcoming storms, and they are Iona, James, Karen, Larry, Maeve, Niall, Octavia, Paul, Rebecca, Simon, Tali, Victor and Winifred.

Sharp readers will have noticed that with the exception of Storm David, these are all in alphabetical order.

Thats because – with the exception of Q, U, X, Y and Z, which are missed out – the first letters of the storms names are arranged in alphabetical order as well as chronological order.

Storm David was named by Meteo France, who first registered it, which explains why its out of step with the UK Storm Centres system.

It wasnt until September 2015 that UK storms began being named.

This change happened to make it easier for the media, and for governments, to discuss the storms and their impact with ease of communication, while raising awareness of their increasingly worrying role in UK life.

The public were invited to suggest names by the Met Office via email and social media.

Tens of thousands of suggestions were submitted before an official system arrived for good in 2017, and now the Met Office or Met Éireann select the names.

Those organisations say they are still using public suggestions when picking names for the storms but wont ask for new ones, though you can always send them anyway here.

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A storm is only given its name once weather experts think its reached an amber be prepared or red take action warning.

If a UK storm is the remnants of a tropical storm or hurricane that has moved across the Atlantic, the well-established method of referring to it as, e.g. Ex-hurricane X will continue, using the official name chosen in the States.

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