Have you ever wanted to name a storm? Now's your chance

With Hitchin buffeted and battered by three storms in a week, with Dudley, Eunice and now Franklin prompting another Met Office yellow weather warning zone today, Monday (February 21) strong winds and extreme weather with names have been in the news recently.

To highlight awareness, storms are handed names because personalising them in this way registers more firmly in our minds.

Says the Met Office's UK Storm Centre: "The naming of storms using a single authoritative system should aid the communication of approaching severe weather through media partners and other government agencies.

"In this way the public will be better placed to keep themselves, their property and businesses safe.

"Since Name our Storms first launched in 2015 we have issued a new list of names each September. The list runs from early September to late August the following year.

"This coincides with the start of autumn when the likelihood of low pressure systems and the potential for named storms increases."

A storm is given a name from the list when it has the potential to trigger an amber or red warning.

The Met Office opened up the naming convention and invited people to send in their ideas for names of future storms.

Thousands of suggestions poured in, and if you want to add to them by naming a storm and explaining why you have chosen it, simply send an email to [email protected]