What are the storm names for 2023/24 and how did Pia get its name?

Storms in December have seen heavy rainfall and plenty of chaos(Picture: Getty Images)

Major storms, hurricanes, cyclones, and weather events tend to be given their own name, with the latest – Storm Pia- seeing a number of Met Office warnings for 80mph winds in parts of the country.

The newest storm of the season follows hot in the footsteps of storm Ciarán , which brought strong winds and rain across the UK.

Gusts of up to 102 mph were recorded in Jersey, and there were reports of a 128 mph wind gust in Brittany on France’s north-west coast.

Follow Metro.co.uk’s live blog for latest updates on Storm Pia.

But why do storms have names? And what will the next storm in 2023 be called?

Here’s all you need to know.

What is the first storm in 2024 going to be called?

After Babet and Ciarán the UK is getting used to the slightly off-kilter names for bad weather.

Pia – which is raging across the UK could be the last storm of the year, but it all depends on what happens over the next two weeks.

Named by Danish forecasters Pia is an anomaly in the weather calendar, with the Met Office announcing the next five names for storms are:

Elin 

Fergus 

Gerrit

Henk

Isha

So the next storm and the first storm of 2024 will be called Elin

Storm Agnes was the first official storm of the season – bringing winds of up to 80mph to parts of the country and forcing yellow weather warnings being put in place.

Agnes was named for Agnes Mary Clerke, a noted 19th century astronomer and writer from Ireland.

The next storm, Babet, was named for a woman who visited the Dutch KNMI’s head office and entered her name into the lot.

She reportedly submitted her name due to the fact that she was born during a storm.

Ciarán meanwhile was named after Ciarán Fearon, a civil servant from Northern Ireland.

The Department for Infrastructure worker’s job involves using Met Office forecasts and sharing key information about river levels, coastal flooding and severe weather impacts.

According to Civil Service World, Mr Fearon said: ‘With the effects of climate change, we are more aware than ever of how weather can affect us all in every aspect of our daily lives.

‘In my role with the Department for Infrastructure, I work closely with local communities in Northern Ireland and multi-agency partners to help keep everyone as warned and informed as possible.’

Storm Pia however – which is currently hurtling strong winds in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland wasn’t named by Britain’s Met Office.

Instead, Denmark’s national weather service, the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), did.

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British weather officials don’t keep their future storm names a secret and tend to use names submitted by regular people.

Denmark, however, is a different ball game.

On the agency’s website, DMI communication officer Niels Hansen says it’s important to name storms so any public messaging about the storm and any havoc it may bring are clear and concise, including any media coverage.

Danish storm names have included Bodil, Egon and Gorm, all of which according to Hansen are short and sweet, so are easy for people to remember. They must also be common enough Danish names that Danes don’t get thrown off by a ‘rare’ name.

‘The name must also work well as a #hashtag on social media. ‘Happiness’, for example, would not be a particularly smart choice because it also means something else,’ Hansen added.

Pia fits the bill here, behind a relatively common Danish name that comes from the Latin word pius, meaning respectable for us 21st-century folk.

DMI bosses vote on each name and the list of future storms has long since been agreed upon.

But the institute doesn’t make this public in case people searching for the names online clash with those actually looking for information on the storm.

How are storm names chosen?

The Met Office publishes a list of storm names ahead of each winter season. The list runs from early September to late August the following year.

The Met Office collaborates with Met Éireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) to name storms based on suggestions sent in by the public.

Send in your own suggestions by emailing [email protected].

Once the storm meets the criteria for being named, either Met Éireann or the Met Office will publicly name the storm, adhering to the formulated list.

Why do storms have names?

Storms are named simply to help make people more aware of severe incoming weather.

The idea is that when you hear a storm named you’ll know to expect heavy rain, dangerous winds or snowfall.

The Met Office and the Irish equivalent Met Éireann decided to begin naming storms after a survey revealed people became more aware of extreme weather warnings once the storm was given a name.

In November 2023, Storm Ciaran sent waves surging in Porthcawl (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

In response to the results, a list of names was drawn up from suggestions from the public which has given us the likes of Storm Abigail and Storm Doris in recent years.

Many will remember February 2022’s destructive Storm Eunice, which quickly followed the damage caused by Storm Dudley.

However, naming storms is not a new phenomenon as the US National Hurricane Centre has named tropical storms since 1953. This makes it easier to refer to Atlantic tropical storms when tracking them and ensures the public will always know exactly what storm is on its way.

Since the regions of the mid-Atlantic are so often plagued with tropical storms that evolve into hurricanes, it makes sense to distinguish between them – with the US and the Caribbean suffering severe damages from the likes of Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Maria in recent years.

When is a storm named?

A name is given to a storm when it is expected to reach an amber or a red warning level.

The warnings are issued by the Met Office National Severe Weather Warning Service when extreme weather conditions like rain, wind, snow, ice, fog and high temperatures are forecasted.

Red, amber, yellow or green weather warnings are based on guidance from the National Severe Weather Warning Service, and are decided by a combination of both the impact the weather may have and the likelihood of those impacts happening.

Why are storms never given Q, U, X, Y or Z names?

Hurricanes are named in the US – pictured is the aftermath of Sandy in New Jersey – and keep to their naming convention for consistency (Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Looking at the above list, you’ll note no UK and Ireland storms begin with the letters, Q, U, X, Y or Z.

All three of the aforementioned organisations behind storm naming address this when announcing new names, stating the decision is to stay ‘in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming convention’.

It also ‘maintains consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic’.

According to AccuWeather’s senior meteorologist, Dan Pydynowski, other parts of the world do use some of these letters when naming their tropical storms or cyclones.

He explained: ‘The East Pacific uses X, Y and Z, while the Atlantic does not… the East Pacific averages more named storms per year. Thus, more names are needed in an average year and there is a better chance [of reaching] the end of the list.’

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Previous storms include Ciarán, Babet and Agnes.