How Do Storms Isha And Jocelyn Get Their Names?

Storm Isha has brought heavy rain and strong winds to the UK, causing disruption to travel and leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity.

Parts of Northern Ireland, northern England and Scotland have seen the strongest winds in 10 to 20 years, with gusts of up to 99mph (159km/h) recorded in Northumberland.

Hot on the heels of Isha is Storm Jocelyn, which is due to hit Northern Ireland and parts of Britain from Tuesday.

Why do storms have names?

Storm Isha is the ninth named storm of the season.

In the UK, the Met Office names any storm when it has the potential to cause disruption or damage.

It believes that it is easier to follow the progress of a storm on TV, radio, or social media if it has a name.

The Met Office said: “We have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises awareness of severe weather before it strikes.”

The US began naming tropical storms in the 1950s.

How are storms named?

The UK Met Office and Irish service Met Éireann launched their first “Name our Storms” campaign in 2015.

Most years, they draw the names from a shortlist of favourites submitted by the public. Since 2019, they have been joined by the national weather service of the Netherlands, which also chips in a few suggested names each year.

In previous years, storms have alternated between male and female names.

However, for the 2023-24 season, the Met Office has altered this, naming a number of storms after prominent scientists, meteorologists and others “who work to keep people safe in times of severe weather”.

What names are on this year’s list?

When the criteria for naming a storm are met, either the Met Office, Met Éireann or Dutch weather agency KNMI can name a storm, taking the name from the latest list in alphabetical order.

Isha, pronounced ee-sha, was suggested by a member of the public.

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A total of seven names in the 2023-24 storm season were selected by KNMI – including Henk which was submitted by someone who visited an open day at the agency’s headquarters in October 2022.

Babet was named after a woman who put her own name forward, “because I was born during a storm”.

Storm Gerrit was named after a weather presenter who left the Dutch public news broadcaster NOS in 2023 after 25 years.

Jocelyn, which is heading to the UK, was named by Met Éireann after Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist who discovered the first pulsating radio stars, or pulsars, in 1967.

Storm Ciarán was named after Ciarán Fearon, a civil servant who works in the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. His job is to ensure key information is shared on river levels and coastal flooding.

Storm Agnes, which was recognised as the first storm of the season, was named after Agnes Mary Clerke, an Irish astronomer and science writer.

Around six to seven named storms impact the UK each year on average, which means names in the second half of the alphabet are put forward but are always unlikely to be used.

And if your name is Quentin or Yasmine, don’t expect to be immortalised as a force of nature. Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z do not even make the shortlist.

You may hear some names over the coming months which are not on the British/Irish/Dutch list.

That is because storms are named where they originate. Storms that reach the UK are occasionally the tail end of one that started in the US several days earlier – and may have been downgraded from hurricane or cyclone status.

How do other countries name storms?

The weather agencies of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands make up the western European storm naming group.

Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, France and Belgium, form the south western group that collaborate to name storms.

Norway, Sweden and Denmark are the northern group.

In the US, the National Hurricane Centre names tropical storms when they have reached winds of least 40mph, using alphabetical lists that are maintained by the World Meteorological Organisation. These lists are used on a six-year cycle.

BBC