The Met Office reveals the storm names for the next 12 months

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As autumn wraps its brunt amber arms around the countryside and prepares us for winter, we know that it's not long until the weather takes a turn for the worst and we have a good chance of seeing mighty winds, gales and downpours sweep the UK. The storms will take names much calmer in sound than the ferocity of their nature. Remember Storm Barney last year?

Well, we can now introduce you to the storms that may (or, hopefully, may not) thrash our countryside over the next 12 months as the Met Office and the Met Éireann (its Irish equivalent) has released a list of upcoming storm names for the UK and Ireland.

The names have been selected from 10,000 suggestions made to the weather organisations by citzens of the British Isles, through email, Facebook and Twitter.

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The aim of publishing the names in advance is to raise awareness of powerful storms that may be a cause for concern in the coming 12 months, from October 1 to September 2017. It also allows the public to track their progression, when they hit, on social media.

One of the chosen names will be given to a storm when duty forecasters in Dublin and Exeter decide it has the potential to cause "medium" or "high" wind impact. 

The list starts with Angus and alternates between male and female names in alphabetical order. They will be assigned as storms appear.

So, please meet the storms we hope not to see this year…

Met Office

Wondering why U, X, Y and Z are not used? This is in line with the US Hurricane Centre naming convention. When a storm reaches the UK from the US, these will be named, by the US National Hurricane Centre, using U, X, Y and Z.

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