Storms are most often named when potentially damaging winds are forecast, but can also be named for flooding rain or disruptive snow.
They were first named to help bring public attention to episodes of severe weather, to help people prepare to avoid the worst impacts by planning ahead.
In Europe, there are five storm naming groups created from the meteorological agencies based in a similar geographic location.
The UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands form the western storm-naming group which started naming storms in 2015.
Weather systems are named by the the UK’s Met Office, Ireland’s Met Éireann and Netherland’s KNMI based on expected weather impacts as well as how likely those are.
