The North East has been braced for the arrival of Storm Otto, which caused severe gales and much disruption across the region. As a result, many will be asking where Otto came from and why we name our storms.
Storm Otto is actually the first official UK storm of the 2022/2023 season, but it doesn’t have a name beginning with A because it was named by the Danish. Storm Otto is expected to hit Denmark the hardest and experiencing the most severe weather comes with the job of naming the storm.
When it arrives, the UK’s first named storm of the season will be Storm Antoni. This will be followed by the likes of Betty, Cillian and Daisy.
List of the names to be used for UK storms
Antoni
Betty
Cillian
Daisy
Elliot
Fleur
Glen
Hendrika
Ide
Johanna
Khalid
Loes
Mark
Nelly
Owain
Priya
Ruadhan
Sam
Tobias
Val
Wouter
Why do storms have names?
Storms are named when they could cause “medium” or “high” impacts, according to The Met Office. Names are submitted by the public and the list is decided by a joint force comprising the meteorological services of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The system was launched following research by the joint meteorological services that found people became more aware of extreme weather warnings once it was given a name.
Why are there no storms beginning with Q, U, X, Y or Z?
According to the Met Office, “To ensure we are in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming conventions, we are not going to include names which begin with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. This will maintain consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic.”
When are storms named?
A name is given to a storm when it is expected to reach an amber or a red warning level. The warnings are issued by the Met Office National Severe Weather Warning Service when extreme weather conditions - including rain, wind, snow, ice or fog - are forecast.
When named storms originate from areas other than the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands or are hit particularly hard, coverage here will continue to use the name for the storm. This is so that all the coverage matches up and avoids confusion for the public.
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