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Weather system naming in Europe

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Weather system naming in Europe follows several multinational schemes under the EUMETNET framework. On the north Atlantic coast, the United Kingdom's Met Office, in collaboration with its Irish counterpart Met Éireann and, since 2019, its Dutch counterpart the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI),[1] decided to introduce a storm naming system following the St Jude's day storm on 27–28 October 2013 which caused 17 deaths in Europe[2][3] and the 2013–14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe to give a single, authoritative naming system to prevent confusion with the media and public using different names for the same storms.[4] The first European windstorm to be named was Abigail on 10 November 2015.[5] The definitive list is combined from suggestions from the three countries.[6]

Other groups include the southwestern countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain and Portugal, and the northern group of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Several countries in central and eastern Europe use a naming scheme from the Free University of Berlin.

Tropical storms crossing the Atlantic keep the name assigned by the United States National Hurricane Center.

Background

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The practice of using names to identify weather systems goes back several centuries, with systems named after places, people or things they hit before the start of the naming scheme.[7][8] Credit for the first usage of personal names for weather is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named tropical cyclones and anticyclones between 1887–1907.[9] Wragge used names drawn from the letters of the Greek alphabet, Greek and Roman mythology and female names, to describe weather systems over Australia, New Zealand and the Antarctic.[8][9] After the new Australian government had failed to create a federal weather bureau and appoint him director, Wragge started naming cyclones after political figures.[10] This system of naming weather systems subsequently fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired, until it was revived in the latter part of the Second World War.[9] Despite falling into disuse the naming scheme was occasionally mentioned in the press, with an editorial published in the Launceston Examiner newspaper on 5 October 1935 that called for the return of the naming scheme.[7][11]

This section is an excerpt from 2022–23 European windstorm season § Definitions and naming conventions.[edit]

There is no universal definition of what constitutes a windstorm in Europe, nor is there a universally accepted system of naming storms. For example, in the Western Group, consisting of the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, a storm is named if one of the meteorological agencies in those countries issues an orange warning (amber in the UK), which generally requires a likelihood of widespread sustained wind speeds greater than 65 km/h, or widespread wind gust speeds over 110 km/h. (Required wind speeds vary slightly by agency and by season.) Both the likelihood of impact and the potential severity of the system are considered when naming a storm.[12][13][14] The Southwest Group of Spain, Portugal, and France share a similar storm-naming scheme, though their names differ from those used by the Western Group.[15] In Greece, however, naming criteria were established for storms when the storm's forecasted winds are above 50 km/h over land, with the wind expected to have a significant impact to infrastructures.[16] In Denmark, a windstorm must have an hourly average windspeed of at least 90 km/h (25 m/s).[17]

The Meteorology Department of the Free University of Berlin (FUB) names all high and low pressure systems that affect Europe, though they do not assign names to any actual storms.[18] A windstorm that is associated with one of these pressure systems will at times be recognized by the name assigned to the associated pressure system by the FUB. Named windstorms that have been recognized by a European meteorological agency are described in this article.

Naming conventions used in Europe are generally based on conditions that are forecast, not conditions that have actually occurred, as public awareness and preparedness are often cited as the main purpose of the naming schemes–for example, a reference.[13] Therefore, an assignment of a storm name does not mean that a storm will actually develop.

The Free University of Berlin

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The oldest naming system in Europe was developed by Karla Wege, a student at the Free University of Berlin's meteorological institute, who suggested that names should be assigned to all areas of low and high pressure that influenced the weather of Central Europe.[19] The university subsequently started to name every area of high or low pressure within its weather forecasts, from a list of 260 male and 260 female names submitted by its students.[19][20] The female names were assigned to areas of low pressure while male names were assigned to areas of high pressure.[19][20] The names were subsequently exclusively used by Berlin's media until February 1990, after which the German media started to commonly use the names, however, they were not officially approved by the German Meteorological Service Deutscher Wetterdienst.[19][21] The DWD subsequently banned the usage of the names by their offices during July 1991, after complaints had poured in about the naming system.[20] However, the order was leaked to the German press agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, who ran it as its lead weather story.[20] Germany's ZDF television channel subsequently ran a phone in poll on 17 July 1991 and claimed that 72% of the 40,000 responses favoured keeping the names.[22] This made the DWD pause and think about the naming system and these days the DWD accept the naming system and request that it is maintained.[20][21] During 1998 a debate started about if it was discrimination to name areas of high pressure with male names and the areas of low pressure with female names.[19] The issue was subsequently resolved by alternating male and female names each year.[19] In November 2002 the "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme was started, which allowed members of the public or companies to buy naming rights for a letter chosen by the buyer, that are then assigned alphabetically to high and low pressure areas in Europe during each year.[23] During 2021, the Meteorological Services of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary started to use the names assigned to areas of low pressure by FU Berlin.[24]

Tropical cyclone naming

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Main articles: Tropical cyclones in Europe and History of tropical cyclone naming

Tropical cyclones that form over the northern Atlantic Ocean are named by the United States National Hurricane Center, once they become tropical storms with 1-minute sustained winds of 35 kn (40 mph; 65 km/h). From time to time, tropical cyclones or their remnants impact Europe and retain the name assigned to them by the United States National Hurricane Center.

EUMETNET

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During 2013, in response to the increasing usage by the European media of common names for any meteorological depression that caused disruptive weather, a task force of the Working Group for the Cooperation between European Forecasters (WGCEF) started to work on a naming scheme.[25] The main objective of this project was to develop a project that would be operated by all of the European national meteorological services and used by the media as well as other agencies such as civil protection.[25] For the purposes of the project, Europe was divided into six groups of neighbouring countries with similar weather and climate characteristics.[26]

Should a system move from one area to another then it will retain the name it was assigned by the original weather service.


Naming Groups

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Western Group

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Storm Abigail on 12 November 2015

United Kingdom, Ireland & Netherlands

During September 2015, the United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann announced a 2-year pilot project, to name weather systems that were expected to impact either the UK or Ireland.[27][28] In order to decide which names were going to be used, members of the public were invited to submit names to the forecasters via social media, which was welcomed with enthusiasm as thousands of names were suggested before they were reviewed by both centres.[29][30] The first list of names was compiled and issued during October 2015, with any names appearing on the List of retired Atlantic hurricane names or starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y, Z omitted.[29][30] It was also decided that any post-tropical cyclones that impacted Europe would retain its name and be referred to as "ex-hurricane". Over the next few months, a total of eleven storms were assigned a name whenever a yellow, amber or red warning for wind was issued by either agency.[29] The project also helped Met Éireann communicate the impacts of several systems, which impacted Ireland in quick succession over the 2015-16 Christmas and New Year period.[29] After the season, it was determined that the project was a success, as the names had been adopted and accepted by the public, the media and emergency responders.[29] As a result, it was decided to expand the naming scheme to include other weather types such as rain and snow, if its impact could lead to significant flooding as advised by their partner agencies.[29]

Ahead of the 2019-20 winter, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) decided to join the scheme and name weather systems, in order to raise awareness of dangerous weather before it impacted the country.[31][32] They decided to name a system if it was forecast to produce significant wind gusts over the country and result in the issuance of an orange or red weather warning.[31]

South-Western Group

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Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg

During 2017, encouraged by the success of the UKMO and Met Éireann naming scheme, the meteorological services of France, Portugal and Spain, decided to set up their own naming scheme.[33] The naming scheme was discussed throughout the year by email, before it was finalised in various web-conferences during the Autumn.[33] It was decided that a system within the Atlantic Ocean or western Mediterranean Sea would be named if it was expected to cause an orange or red wind warning in either France, Spain or Portugal.

Northern Group

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Denmark, Sweden and Norway

During September 2013, the Danish media used 3 different names that had originated in Britain, Germany and Sweden to describe the St. Jude storm.[34] As a result, this created confusion within Denmark as the public thought that three separate depressions, were impacting the country rather than a single system.[34] During the aftermath of the system, the then minister responsible for the Danish Meteorological Institute Martin Lidegaard, named the system Allan and ordered the DMI to name storms affecting Denmark in the future.[34] During the course of that winter, it became clear that not having a single naming system for significant weather in Europe, was causing confusion as the media used names from different schemes to describe the same storms.[29]

Central Mediterranean Group

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Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Malta

This group started naming windstorms for the 2021-22 European windstorm season, with Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones also being named using this groups list.


Eastern Mediterranean Group

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Greece, Cyprus and Israel[35]

In January 2017, the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) started to name weather systems, that would be expected to cause significant social and economic consequences in Greece.[36] In order to do this, the NOA developed a number of criteria that took into account, what the meteorological hazard was as well as the size of the affected area and population at risk.

Central (FUB Naming) Group

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Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia

Storms from the FUB are only included if they haven't already been named by another group, or if they are expected to cause damage equal to or greater than storms named by any of the other groups.

Unofficial Naming Groups

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These groups do not officially name European windstorms, but they do recognise windstorms that other agencies have named that affect their countries.

North-Eastern Group

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Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

South-Eastern Mediterranean Group

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Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria


See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Storm names for 2019-20 announced". Met Office. Met Office. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  2. ^ Ahlstrom, Dick (15 January 2015). "Storm-naming system yet to be put in place as Rachel peters out". Irish Times. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Met Éireann plans to start naming storms from next year". The Journal. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  4. ^ "The power of a name". Met Office. 3 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  5. ^ "Abigail, First British Storm Ever Named, Slams Scotland, Ireland". NBC News. 12 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Naamgeving van stormen". knmi. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  7. ^ a b Dorst, Neal M (23 October 2012). "They Called the Wind Mahina: The History of Naming Cyclones". Hurricane Research Division, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Slides 8–72.
  8. ^ a b Adamson, Peter (September 2003). "Clement Lindley Wragge and the naming of weather disturbances". Weather. 58 (9): 359–363. Bibcode:2003Wthr...58..359A. doi:10.1256/wea.13.03.
  9. ^ a b c Smith, Ray (1990). "What's in a Name?" (PDF). Weather and Climate. 10 (1): 24–26. doi:10.2307/44279572. JSTOR 44279572. S2CID 201717866. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2016.
  10. ^ Landsea, Christopher W; Dorst, Neal M (1 June 2014). "Subject: Tropical Cyclone Names: B1) How are tropical cyclones named?". Tropical Cyclone Frequently Asked Question. United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018.
  11. ^ Barnard, G. M (5 October 1935). "Letters to the Editor: Quite Weatherly". The Examiner. Launceston, Tasmania. p. 15. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  12. ^ "Weather Warnings Explanation". Met Éireann The Irish Meteorological Service. Met Éireann. Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  13. ^ a b "UK Storm Centre". Met Office. UK Met Office. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  14. ^ "KNMI waarschuwingen" (in Dutch). KNMI. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  15. ^ Leitao, Paula; Roulet, Bernard; Rey, Jaime (September 2018). "Storm naming: the First Season of Naming by the South-west Group: Spain-Portugal-France" (PDF). The European Forecaster (Newsletter of the WGCEF) (23): 33–37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  16. ^ Kotroni, V; Lagouvardos, K; Bezes, A; Dafis, S; Galanaki, E; Giannaros, C; Giannaros, T; Karagiannidis, A; Koletsis, I; Kopania, T; Papagiannaki, K; Papavasileiou, G, G; Vafeiadis, V, V; Vougioulas, E (2021). "Storm Naming in the Eastern Mediterranean: Procedures, Events Review and Impact on the Citizens Risk Perception and Readiness". Atmosphere. 12 (11): 1537. Bibcode:2021Atmos..12.1537K. doi:10.3390/atmos12111537.
  17. ^ "Storms in Denmark since 1891" (PDF). dmi.dk. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  18. ^ "Naming the Weather: Institute of Meteorology at Freie Universität Assigns Names to Weather Highs and Lows for the Year Ahead: Starting September 25, 2013". Freie Universität Berlin Office of Communication and Marketing. Freie Universität Berlin. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  19. ^ a b c d e f "History of Naming Weather Systems". The Free University of Berlin's Institute of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  20. ^ a b c d e Gutman, Roy. "Germany bans naming storms 'mean Irene' after howls of protest". The Ottawa Citizen. Newsday. p. F10 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ a b "Geschichte der Namensvergabe" [History of Naming Weather Systems]. The Free University of Berlin's Institute of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  22. ^ Gutman, Roy. "Female names for bad weather draw protests". Sun Sentinel. Newsday. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "European Cold Front 'Cooper' Sponsored by Mini". Der Spiegel. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  24. ^ "Historie". 13 April 2022.
  25. ^ a b Cusack, Evelyn; Paterson, Laura; Lang, William Jonathan; Csekits, Christian (September 2017). Lang, William Jonathan (ed.). "WGCEF Task Team on Storm Naming in Europe" (PDF). The European Forecaster. Vol. 22. p. 48-50. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  26. ^ Savir, Amit (5 October 2021). "New! Israel will also have names for significant weather events!". Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  27. ^ "Name our storms". United Kingdom Met Office. 8 September 2015. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  28. ^ "8 September 2015 – Help the Met Office and Met Éireann name our storms this winter". Met Office gov.uk.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g "The power of a name". United Kingdom Met Office. 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  30. ^ a b "Name our storms - Terms and conditions". United Kingdom Met Office. 7 September 2015. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  31. ^ a b "Stormen krijgen namen in samenwerking met Groot-Brittannië en Ierland" [Storms are given names in association with Great Britain and Ireland] (Press release) (in Dutch). Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. 6 September 2019. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  32. ^ "Storm names for 2019-20 announced" (Press release). United Kingdom Met Office. 5 September 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  33. ^ a b Leitao, Paula; Roulet, Bernard; Rey, Jaime (September 2018). "Storm naming: the First Season of Naming by the South-west Group: Spain-Portugal-France" (PDF). The European Forecaster. Vol. 23. Working Group for the Cooperation between European Forecasters. p. 23-37. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  34. ^ a b c "Stormen hedder Bodil" (in Danish). Danish Meteorological Institute. 4 December 2013. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  35. ^ "Severe weather event naming list released". 6 October 2023.
  36. ^ Kotroni, Vassiliki; Lagouvardos, Konstantinos; Bezes, Antonis; Dafis, Stavros; Galanaki, Elisavet; Giannaros, Christos; Giannaros, Theodore; Karagiannidis, Athanasios; Koletsis, Ioannis; Kopania, Theodora; Papagiannaki, Katerina; Papavasileiou, Georgios; Vafeiadis, Vasilis; Vougioulas, Eustratios (2021). "Storm Naming in the Eastern Mediterranean: Procedures, Events Review and Impact on the Citizens Risk Perception and Readiness". Atmosphere. 12 (11): 1537. Bibcode:2021Atmos..12.1537K. doi:10.3390/atmos12111537.
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