Stormnamen 2026/27

1st of September each year since 2015 [2021  -- 2022 -- 2023 -- 2024 -- 2025] Met Éireann [RTE], Met Office UK [BBC] and Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut [KNMI] go handen over de oceaan to name the coming Winter's storms together. Makes sense: we all get largely the same weather; although KNMI might feel the need to name an event [I dunno: Siberian blizzard?] which doesn't merit even a yellow warning for us. But that storm is [✓] off the list. And we recognise that no man island is an island and we'll retain the same names for, say, the tail-end of American hurricanes. Last year, for example, we interpolated Tempestade Claudia which rushed up from Iberia. In all we got through Amy (Oct), Claudia (Nov ES/PT), Bram (Dec), Chandra (Jan), Dave (Apr).

That short stack is typical. In Sept 2023, I maintained that there was no way we were going to get as far as Storm Jocelyn [Bell-Burnell]. But !bzzzt! wrong: we were hammered by Isha and Jocelyn back-to-back in mid-Jan 2024.  So this year's list:

Austen [Nagle 1903-1984], Boelo, Chloe, Dano, Evelyn [Murphy], Finn, Gwendolyn, Heather, Ivy, Jade, Kilian [Rohan 1916-1999] Laoise, Miriam [Lyons] Nicola, Olaf, Phelim, Ruban, Shaun, Theo, Vesna and Wende. Some of the green jersey's are named after famous Irish meteorologists, the others are submitted for consideration by we-the-public. The Brits nominated Shaun the Sheep. Watch out for Stormy McStormface any year soon. On NL side Gwendolyn is named after a girl whose mother threatened that KNMI would name a storm after her if she didn't tidy her room. She's grown up now, and presumably her rooms are within-the-normal-range tidy.

Let's hope that, like last Winter, we are spared tree-fellers in Darragh [Dec 2024] and Éowyn [Jan 2025] - we have plenty of fire-wood in stack, thank you very much Boreas. Then again last Winter was soooo wet we had to move the post-box to the bottom of the lane. The Anglo-Celt has a thoughtful essay on the storm-naming.