Now the best of the rest…
After receiving thousands of suggestions for names, this week we announced the official list of storm names that will be used for autumn/winter 2015-16. The list ranges from Abigail, through Gertrude and Tegan to Wendy, but what about the more creative names that were put forward by the UK and Irish public?
There were plenty of more imaginative ideas sent in which we’d like to share with you and say thanks for getting behind the project and contributing.
Some people suggested themes: leaf shaker, leaf stripper, branch wobbler, trunk trembler, root ripper, armegeddon!
There were lots of votes for using tree and flower names such as: Alder, Blackthorn, Cypress, Ivy, Juniper, Oak, Poplar, Yew.
Greek Gods and Goddesses were also popular along with characters from Shakespeare’s plays and other literature: Prospero, Zeus, Apollo, Puck, Beowulf, Hannibal, Macbeth.
Cartoon and film characters also featured in the ideas along with using colours: Zebedee, Bilbo, Baldrick, Smaug, Kraken.
Here’s a selection of Tweets we received:
After my first bath Mr Brown thought we’d been hit by a storm @metoffice so he suggests Paddington #nameourstorms https://t.co/XjLr1WvYoz
— Paddington (@paddingtonbear) September 8, 2015
Hurricane Tetley if it’s a storm in a teacup. Unless it’s a Typhoo-n of course. #nameourstorms
— Will Cameron (@willicm) September 8, 2015
#nameourstorms In A Teacup
— Freya (@speelingmstake) September 8, 2015
Stormageddon #nameourstorms
— Joe Warplanes (@doitlots) September 9, 2015
Official blog of the Met Office news team 
If you had so many creative suggestions, why have you chosen to go with popular (and fairly boring) first names?
The main factor in the selection process was the popularity of the names – how many times they were suggested – which is why so many of them are in common use. We have received thousands of suggestions though and, if this years pilot is a success, we will need many names for future years.
Trooper – Storm Trooper
Yet more ridiculous propaganda from the Met Office. This is a blatant attempt to equate the fairly minor and largely benign storms we experience in the UK with hurricanes and typhoons.
It’s little wonder so many people have lost faith in the Met Office. The organisation has become a laughing stock under Slingo.
As the UK and Ireland’s National Met Services, the Met Office and Met Éireann operate to maintain public safety through severe weather warnings and forecasts. At the moment naming of storms is done randomly and one storm can be given many names, which is confusing for the public. We know that naming storms works elsewhere in the world, and, yes, typhoons and hurricanes are much more powerful than the storms we experience in the UK. However, our storms also have the potential to cause significant disruption and can claim lives which is why we hope that naming storms will help raise awareness of severe weather and ensure greater safety of the public.
Let’s just see how the propaganda evolves then.
My expectation is that as time passes more and more smaller storms will get named, and this will be presented by the propaganda office as an increase in extreme weather events.