Batten down the hatches: storms Barney, Desmond, Frank and Gertrude could soon be wreaking havoc in the British Isles.
Britain’s weather forecasting service, the Met Office, and Ireland’s Met Eireann have come up with an A-Z of names for storms after appealing to the public for ideas.
The list, drawn up from thousands of responses, also includes Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Eva, Henry, Nigel, Phil, Rhonda, and Wendy.
The Met Office hopes the pilot project will help raise awareness of severe weather and improve public safety.
A storm will be named when it is considered to have “the potential to cause substantial impacts” in Britain or Ireland, the Met Office said.
There is a name for each letter of the alphabet, except for Q, U, X, Y and Z, which are omitted in line with the US National Hurricane Center naming convention.
In recent winters, storms in Britain have been given names such as “St Jude’s Day” but until now there has been no definitive naming system.
Announcing the pilot project in September, Derrick Ryall, head of the public weather service at the Met Office, said the aim of the exercise was to provide a single authoritative naming system for the storms that affect UK and Ireland.
“We have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises awareness of severe weather before it strikes,” he said.
“We hope that naming storms in line with the official severe weather warnings here will do the same and ensure everyone can keep themselves, their property and businesses safe and protected at times of severe weather.”