A NATURAL Resources Wales team leader, who plays a crucial role in alerting the public about river and coastal flooding in Wales, has the honour of being included in the list of new storm names for the 2023/24 season.

The Met Office, in partnership with Met Éireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), announced the new list of storm names for the upcoming season, which includes names of those involved in responses to severe weather, as well as submissions from the public.

The list includes the names Agnes, Babet, and Ciarán as the first three named storms by the group this season.

Storms will be named when they are deemed to have the potential to cause 'medium' or 'high' impacts in the UK, Ireland, or the Netherlands.

Wind is the primary consideration for naming a storm, but additional impacts from rain or snow will also be considered.

This year, the Met Office's suggestions include names of people who work to protect the public in times of severe weather, as well as submissions from the public.

Natural Resources Wales’ Regina Simmons, who is a team leader for warning and informing, finds her first name in the list.

Her team uses Met Office data and forecasts to predict and warn for river and coastal flooding in Wales.

Ms Simmons said: “The first thing we can all do is check if our area is at risk of flooding before the rain starts to fall.”

“People in Wales can do that by simply popping in their postcode on the online flood risk checker on the NRW website or by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188.”

Names from Met Éireann are inspired by famous scientists, while names from KNMI are often of Dutch origin and were submitted by the public throughout the year.

Environment Agency’s water resources security of supply manager, Stuart Sampson, highlighted the importance of naming storms as a communication tool.

"Our weather is a great conversation starter! Giving a storm a name means we can all talk about an event with a clear and common understanding," he said.

This year, the traditional male/female ordering of names has been broken to allow the inclusion of some of the more popular submitted names.

Storms are named to aid communication when severe weather is in the forecast, which can help everyone keep themselves, their property, and businesses safe and protected.

For example, 99 per cent of people within the red warning area in the southeast were aware of the warnings during Storm Eunice in 2022, highlighting the effectiveness of storm naming as a communications tool.

The full list of 2023/24 storm names includes:

  • Agnes;
  • Babet;
  • Ciarán;
  • Debi;
  • Elin;
  • Fergus;
  • Gerrit;
  • Henk;
  • Isha;
  • Jocelyn;
  • Kathleen;
  • Lilian;
  • Minnie;
  • Nicholas;
  • Olga;
  • Piet;
  • Regina;
  • Stuart;
  • Tamiko;
  • Vincent;
  • Walid.

Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not included to be in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming convention.