Have you ever wondered? When do storms get names?

Storm Betty marked just the second named storm of the 2022-23 season. Do you know when storms get names?

Names are chosen each year by members of the public. In the UK and Ireland, we share our names with the Netherlands.

Storms are named when they could cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in one of the three partner countries.

It is said that the naming practice helps provide consistent and authoritative messaging in times of severe weather.

Storms first started receiving names in the UK and Ireland in 2015, and in November that year, Storm Abigail became the first ever named storm.

Other groups of countries in Europe also name storms, and it is agreed practice that when any national weather service names a system, all other countries keep the same name.

Ex-hurricanes which cross the Atlantic Ocean also retain the name they were given by the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami – as happened with Ophelia in October 2017.

There are some rules when it comes to names. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used. Party due to a lack of variety in names and also to maintain convention with the US hurricane warning system.

The 2022-23 storm season began last September, but it took until August for Storm Antoni to begin the list, right as the season is set to come to an end just weeks before the 2023-24 season kicks off.