What’s in a name? Met Éireann reveals monikers for new-season storms

The first storm of the coming 2023-2024 season, should it arrive, is to be named Storm Agnes, Met Éireann has announced.

The forecaster has published a range of names for weather events that might batter us over the coming storm season, which begins on Friday and runs until August 31st.

It is not clear if or when Storm Agnes might visit but it has been named after the Irish astronomer and science writer Agnes Mary Clarke, who died in 1907.

Met Éireann has collaborated with weather services in the UK (Met Office) and the Netherlands (KNMI) to select the names of storms that could occur over the next year, with the agencies sharing naming rights between them.

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Each of the three meteorological services contributed seven names to the coming season’s list of 21, with names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z excluded in line with the US National Hurricane Centre’s naming convention.

Met Éireann’s choices focused on eminent Irish and Northern-Irish scientists in an attempt to honour their contributions to science and the benefits brought to humankind.

The forecaster also selected Storm Fergus, in honour of scientist Fergus O’Rourke, who contributed to myrmecology and medical entomology before his death in 2010. Next up would be Storm Jocelyn, chosen as a mark of respect for Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who discovered the first pulsating radio stars in 1967.

Ms Bell Burnell said she was “delighted to feature in this distinguished list celebrating science”. She said she hoped that if Storm Jocelyn does come about, it will be “a useful stirring-up rather than a destructive event”.

“Science advancements increase our knowledge and understanding of the world around us, and I think this is wonderful example of science-based services communications,” she said.

Irish selections

Other Irish choices include Storm Lilian, named after Lilian Bland (1878–1971), an Anglo-Irish journalist and pioneer aviator. She was the first woman in Ireland to build and fly an aircraft, and quite possibly the first woman in the world to build her own airplane, the Bland Mayfly.

There is a joint acknowledgement under the letter K, with respect to Kathleen Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli (1921–2006), who was one of the developers of computer programming, and Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971), an Irish crystallographer who demonstrated the crystal structure of benzene.

The next Irish named storm, if the weather brings us that far down the list, would be Storm Nicholas, after physicist Nicholas Callan (1799–1864), who invented the induction coil that was used in early telegraphy and is still used in some electronic devices today.

Last would be Storm Vincent, named after Vincent Barry (1908-1975), an organic chemist best known for leading the team that developed the anti-leprosy drug clofazimine.

Eoin Sherlock of Met Éireann said there no guarantee that any of these storms will materialise. In the season just gone, just two arrived — Storm Anthoni (named by the UK Met Office) and Storm Betty (named by Met Éireann). Both storms hit just last month.

“We never got beyond the letter B,” said Mr Sherlock of the progress made on the previous season’s list.