Storm names for 2021-22 announced

by Kirsty McCabe, FRMetS

The storm names chosen for 2021-22 have been revealed – but did you, a family member or even your pet make the list? 

The Met Office, Met Éireann and KNMI have announced the storm names they have selected from over 10,000 submissions put forward by the UK public earlier this summer. The names chosen reflect the diversity of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. 

The 2021-22 season runs from September 2021 through to the end of August 2022, and the first storm that will be named this year will be Arwen. Just like the US National Hurricane Centre naming conventions, there are no storms for Q, U, X, Y and Z.  

To avoid any confusion over naming, if a 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, for example, “ex-hurricane Kirsty” will continue. 

While the names of the storm can be light-hearted, the impacts from storms can be severe. Storms will be named when they are deemed to cause medium or high impacts in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands. In addition to strong winds, impacts from rain and snow will also be considered. 

First introduced by the Met Office and Met Éireann (Ireland’s National Meteorological Service) in 2015, the Name our Storms campaign has helped raise awareness of the potential impacts of severe weather in Britain and Ireland before it hits. In 2019, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), the Dutch national weather forecasting service, joined the collaboration. 

The full list of 2021-22 storm names can be found below.

Read the full press release here>>

To find out more about the Name our Storms project you can visit the Met Office Storm Centre website.