Storm Gareth is currently battering the UK, but if you think it’s been named after the England football manager, you’re mistaken – instead the moniker has been picked by the Met Office and its Irish counterpart Met Eireann.
This is the fourth year the list has been produced, which is compiled from suggestions by members of the public, with the weather experts selecting the names that reflect the nations, culture and diversity of the UK and Ireland.
Gareth hit the UK with winds of 75mph in Scotland on Tuesday night, while winds of over 60mph were seen widely across western parts of the UK in the early hours of Wednesday.
There has been travel disruption across the country, with some Virgin Trains services between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston and some trains between Glasgow Central and Preston were cancelled.
The tradition of naming storms in the UK comes from the States when US National Hurricane Centre in the 1970s began naming their somewhat more serious weather problems.
The British and Irish list follows an alternating pattern of female and male names in the same way the US does.
The alphabetical list of names skips Q, U, X, Y and Z to comply with international storm-naming conventions.
See the full list of names below:
Derrick Ryall, head of public weather services at the Met Office, said: “Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK, providing a consistent message to the public and crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.”
Polling has found nearly 80 percent of people think giving storms a name is useful in making them aware the severe weather may have more impact than normal, while 63 percent believe it is useful in letting them know to take action.
Evelyn Cusack, head of forecasting at Met Eireann, said: “The last 12 months have seen some extreme weather around the globe as well as here at home.
“While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one we are prepared with a whole new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us.
“As before, Met Eireann forecasters will work in close co-operation with our colleagues from the Met Office in the UK to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather.”