Met Office reveals storm names for 2022/2023: prepare to be battered by Khalid and Priya

Batten down the hatches … Antoni, Betty and Cillian could be paying you a visit.

The Met Office has announced its naming system for storms that cause "medium" or "high" impacts in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands.

This will be the eighth year of the storm-naming partnership, which is run in conjunction with Met Eireann in Ireland and KNMI in the Netherlands.

The collaborative naming project helps to raise awareness and inform the public of the risks of coming storms.

Antoni will be the first named storm of the new season. In addition to strong winds, effects from rain and snow will also be considered in the naming process.

The Met Office’s names in the list have come through submissions from the public, with Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain some of those submitted, showing the breadth of names in use across the UK.

Betty ran out winner of a public vote on Met Office Twitter, with more than 12,000 votes cast to select the name for the letter B.

KNMI’s selected names, including Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna and Loes, are named after influential Dutch scientists. Met Eireann’s submissions include Cillian, Fleur, Ide and Nelly.

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“We know from seven years of doing this that naming storms works," said the Met Office's Will Lang, who leads responses in times of severe weather.

"Last year, Storms Arwen and Eunice brought some severe impacts to the UK and we know that naming storms helps to raise awareness and give the public the information they need to stay safe in times of severe weather."

Met Office post-event surveys show that 98 per cent of those in the red warning area in the south-east for Storm Eunice were aware of the threat, and 91 per cent of those acted to protect themselves, their property or business.

“Recent impactful storms demonstrated our ongoing need to communicate severe weather in a clear way to help the public protect themselves," Mr Lang said.

"Naming storms is just one way that we know helps to raise awareness of severe weather and provides clarity for the public when they need it most.”

Storm Eunice – in pictures

Evelyn Cusack, head of forecasting at Met Eireann, said naming storms was a very important tool in the National Met Services’ warnings arsenal.

“The annual unveiling of the new storm names on September 1 creates great media and public interest," Ms Cusack said.

"More importantly, though, during the winter when a storm is named for potential orange/red impacts, it creates a great media and public ‘call to action’, helping to save lives and property.”

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“News on severe weather is not limited to national boundaries," said KNMI head of forecasting Jan Rozema.

"So the message to UK, Irish and Dutch inhabitants will be much appreciated and understood if we share the same information, starting with storm names.

"This year we had a good example. Three named storms affected the Netherlands within a week.

"A rare red warning was issued for storm Eunice, one of the most severe storms in 50 years. Storms Dudley and Franklin also brought significant weather impacts.

"For us at KNMI, it is a great privilege and advantage to work in close co-operation with our colleagues from Ireland and the UK in the communication about storms."

Full list of storm names for 2022-2023:

- Antoni

- Betty

- Cillian (kill-ee-an)

- Daisy

- Elliot

- Fleur

- Glen

- Hendrika (hen-dree-ka)

- Ide (ee-da)

- Johanna (yo-hah-na)

- Khalid

- Loes (l-oo-s)

- Mark

- Nelly

- Owain (oh-wine)

- Priya

- Ruadhan (ru-awe-on)

- Sam

- Tobias

- Val

- Wouter (vow-ter)