Agnes, Debi, Henk and Olga are among the new storm names revealed by the English, Dutch and Irish weather services that we'll be watching out for in the coming year. The next storm in the UK is called Storm Isha.
Why does the Met Office name storms?
Now in the ninth year of the Name our Storms campaign, the system aims to raise awareness of severe weather before it hits. Storms are named when they cause a medium to high impact, with names often being chosen for light-hearted reasons.
What are the Met Office storm names for 2023/2024?
The storm names are: Agnes, Babet, Ciaran, Debi, Elin, Fergus, Gerrit, Henk, Isha, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Lilian, Minnie, Nicholas, Olga, Piet, Regina, Stuart, Tamiko, Vincent and Walid.
No storms are beginning with the letter Q, U, X, Y and Z to comply with the international storm naming conventions.
Names on the list are inspired by people working to protect the public from severe weather around the UK, such as Debi, Ciaran and Regina. Meanwhile, the list also includes Minnie, inspired by Minnie the Minx from the Beano comic.
Met Office Head of Situational Awareness Will Lang, who leads responses in times of severe weather, said: "This is the ninth year of us naming storms and we do it because it works. Naming storms helps to ease communication of severe weather and provides clarity when people could be impacted by the weather.
"This year, it's great to be able to recognise the collaborative efforts of some of our partners across the UK with the inclusion of names from some partner organisations. Working across different agencies allows us to help as many people as possible be prepared for severe weather."
The first storm of the year will be called Agnes, followed by Babet and Ciaran.
How does the Met Office name storms?
The storm names are suggested by the public and then compiled by the three National met services.
The Met Office, Met Eireann and KNMI collate the list together. This year, Met Office suggestions include names of people who work to protect the public in times of severe weather, as well as submissions from the public.
Debi Garft, who recently retired as Senior Policy Officer in the Scottish Government Flooding Team, shares a first name with the fourth name in the list. She said: "It is important that we all take steps to protect ourselves, our family and property by preparing for extreme weather events. Checking the SEPA flood maps to see if your property or business is at flood risk, signing up for free SEPA Floodline local flood warnings and regional flood alerts, and using the daily Scottish Flood Forecast are great first steps.”
To find out more about Name Our Storms you can visit the Met Office Storm Centre.