Will we ever see Storm Antoni? Storm naming seems to have fallen out of favour over the UK but there will be a wet and windy midweek with gales and high gusts. Meteo France has just named the low Noa.
As the UK faces a wet and windy spell midweek with mention of gales, even severe gales and heavy rain, the Storm Naming season has not kicked off yet. Storm Antoni is still waiting for its big moment. There will be severe gales in exposed areas, gusts over 70mph and the risk of flooding. Met Eireann has warned
"Very windy or becoming very windy countrywide (Ireland) on Wednesday, with some severe or damaging gusts possible"
Weds 7am Meteo France has now named the low Storm Noa, for its severe weather and potential wind impacts later on Wednesday.
There are plenty of warnings about: wind and rain warnings from the UK Met Office, a code yellow for the Isle of Man ‘Heavy Rain & Coastal Overtopping’. Jersey Met. has an orange gale warning for the Channel Islands and Met Eireann has yellow wind & rain warnings on Tuesday with a mix of orange and yellow warnings for Wind on Wednesday. Although many people now get their news updates online, the television broadcasts after the main evening news are still important and no-one wants to squeeze in a name announcement late at night.
Back in September 2022, the next list of Storm names was announced by the UK Met Office to much Instagram fanfare. The public (on Twitter) had been invited to help chose a few of the list, more engagement in the project! So far, the list remains unused. In the season before, all the storm names that would be used, had been named by late February but did include the big hitters of Arwen and Eunice.
The 2020/21 season only reached E for Storm Evert and that was named in July:
“The storm brought travel disruption across south-west England with difficult conditions on the roads. Holidaymakers experienced an uncomfortable night in busy campsites during the school summer holiday season with the strong winds flattening some tents. Large waves caused dangerous conditions on beaches. “unusually strong winds for the time of year …Winds gusted widely at over 40Kt (46mph).” Storm Evert 2021 Met Office
So far no storms have been named officially. Tuesday 18:45
The Daily Mirror was obviously bored of waiting for an official announcement from Met Eireann or the UK Met Office. Dutch KNMI is also in this Western naming group. We have seen Storm Otto pass by northern Scotland and that caused rail disruption in the UK in February half term. That storm was named by the Danish Met Institute which is part of the Northern naming group.
The Southwestern naming group has been on a roll this season. Storm Mathis (named by Meteo France) battered the Channel Islands at the end of March and brought wet and blustery weather to southern England. The SSW (Sudden Stratospheric Warming) event this winter resulted in high pressure at low latitudes (over Greenland or Scandinavia) and the Jetstream being further south than usual. This then fed more low pressures than usual towards Portugal (including the Azores) Spain and France.
There are more countries in this group and a larger landmass waiting for weather impacts but it does feel that our lack of Storm Names might reflect a change in enthusiasm from the UK Met Office, away from the social media gang. Should we just continue the list in a circular fashion, rather than another barely touched annual update? We are awaiting the next 'A' storm (now past Easter) and those named R, P, S or T are never getting a look in. Usually Met Eireann would name a storm once an orange wind warning appeared. Today there is an orange warning for Co. Kerry and Co.Clare with a red marine warning for the coasts and surrounding marine area with “violent storm force 11” mentioned. Kerry- Met Eireann Orange Weather Warning "Stormy for a time with damaging gusts in excess of 110km/h" Valid: 02:00 Wednesday 12/04/2023 to 08:00 Weds
Update - Co. Cork now has an Orange warning for Winds until 08:00 and Co. Clare a Yellow warning.
More gales and high gusts to come on Wednesday from the SW then West for England and Wales
Why are storms named? The Met Office explains
“The naming of storms using a single authoritative system should aid the communication of approaching severe weather through media partners and other government agencies. In this way the public will be better placed to keep themselves, their property and businesses safe.”
It used to be an orange wind warning would result in a storm name but the rules changed over time and have remained as evasive as the Impact based warning system itself.
Met Eireann says “Storms are named when they could cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in one of the partner countries and help provide consistent, authoritative messaging in times of severe weather. The Met Service that expects the severe weather to hit most, names the storm generally in conjunction with Orange/Red warnings. These warnings could be for wind, rain or snow or a combination.”
Met Eireann has a more quantitive warning policy where winds reaching a certain threshold, or a certain amount of rain forecast would see a warning issued. Not necessarily adding in population centres, time of day nor other events to look at the possible impacts of any severe weather.
Does it matter? Do we need to name a spell of stormy weather, can we not cope with high winds and heavy rain? For truly significant events, like Storm Arwen, few people could argue. The red warning sent many people home early, the messaging was clear and strong but in the months afterwards the name was very important. Still now, looking at fallen trees in NE Britain, we know it was Arwen’s force. Reports that come out about delays in power reconnections and how the landscape was changed, they engage by using Storm Arwen's name.
It's the Easter Holidays with many people still on a break from school or work. People are away from home or travelling, in areas where they might not know the local conditions or where is prone to flooding, or extra windy. Getting attention and sharing a strong weather message, in amongst the endless online bombardment, is hard. Naming a storm can help with that if the conditions are going to be severe enough or impactful. As you listen to the wind and rain tonight, or get buffeted about on Wednesday 12th April, maybe your holiday postcard might have included “Bit wild here thanks to Storm Antoni”
Storm names for the 2022/2023 season
More chat and discussion about Storm Noa today or the Name our Storms project in the Netweather community forum.
