Have you ever wondered why storms that hit the United Kingdom are given human names?
When sweeping rain and windy gusts arrive and batter the country, the storms causing the havoc are often given innocuous names like Hugh or Liam.
It can seem slightly confusing, but the Met Office's website explains the reasons why, as well as providing a list of names for all the upcoming storms.
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The Met Office began naming storms in 2015, and since then it has released an alphabetical list of names every September which runs until late August the following year.
The Met Office asks the public to send in their ideas for future storm names and received thousands of suggestions, and the Irish and Dutch weather forecasting services also suggest names.
Not all bad weather is given a name, so a storm is based on a combination of both the impact the weather may have, and the likelihood of those impacts occurring.
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The Met Office says that naming storms can make it easier to communicate severe weather events to the media and the Government, and therefore to the public.
No storm is ever given a name starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z, in line with US National Hurricane Centre naming conventions.
The most recent UK storm was called Corrie, and storms are usually named in alphabetical order - although there are exceptions, as the storm which preceded Corrie was named Malik.
What's next after Storm Corrie?
The next storm will be named Dudley, followed by Storm Eunice and then Storm Franklin.
Below is the full list of storm names for 2021/22, decided by the public and the Met Office - do you share a name with any of them?
- Arwen
- Barra
- Malik
- Corrie
- Dudley
- Eunice
- Franklin
- Gladys
- Herman
- Imani
- Jack
- Kim
- Logan
- Méabh
- Nasim
- Olwen
- Pól
- Ruby
- Seán
- Tineke
- Vergil
- Willemien
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