{"id":1877,"date":"2026-10-24T15:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:52:51","slug":"who-names-storms-in-mainland-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/who-names-storms-in-mainland-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Storms : how are their names chosen ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In early september, Meteo France published the list of 21 names selected for storms likely to affect the french territory during the storm season 2026 - 2027<\/p>\n

Since 1954, the University of Berlin had been naming all anticyclones and low-pressure systems affecting Europe. In 2017, a new arrangement was introduced between countries in south-western Europe. Under this system, the French weather service (M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France), the Spanish weather service (AEMET) and the Portuguese weather service (IPMA) select the names of storms likely to affect their respective territories. The Belgian weather service (IRM) and the Luxembourg weather service (MeteoLux) joined them in 2021, followed by Andorra\u2019s meteorological service in 2025.<\/p>\n

In rotation, one of the six countries in the South-West group proposes a list of names, which is published in early September, before the start of the winter storms season. For the 2026\u20132027 season, M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France selected the 21 names following an online public consultation.<\/p>\n

Other groups of meteorological services are responsible for the rest of Europe. For example, the \u201cWest\u201d group brings together the Met Office (United Kingdom), Met \u00c9ireann (Ireland) and KNMI (the Netherlands). This group also publishes a list of 21 names in early September, based on a joint selection by the three weather services.<\/p>\n

Like M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France\u2019s list, the \u201cWest\u201d group\u2019s list received input in 2026 from more than 40,000 name suggestions submitted by members of the public in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The World Meteorological Organization, meanwhile, is responsible for naming low-pressure systems in the rest of the world, outside Europe.<\/p>\n

Why name Storms?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naming the most severe storms helps raise public awareness more effectively of the safety measures that need to be taken.<\/p>\n

According to the Met Office, for Storm Goretti in January 2026, post-event surveys suggest that 93% of people within the amber warning area were aware of the warnings and 88% of them took action, such as staying in, not driving and shopping earlier.<\/p>\n

When do we decide to name a storm?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A low-pressure system is named by the European \u201cSouth-West\u201d group only if it is likely to trigger at least an orange-level wind warning in one of the six member countries. The same rule applies to the \u201cWest\u201d group, which names a low-pressure system when it is expected to affect Ireland, Great Britain or the Netherlands first and to reach an intensity that warrants an \u201camber alert\u201d.<\/p>\n

The weather service that decides to issue the first orange or red warning assigns a name to the storm system from its group\u2019s published list and informs the other services. The low-pressure system responsible for the storm retains the same name throughout its entire life cycle, regardless of its trajectory. This coordination now also extends to Mediterranean countries, including Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.<\/p>\n

Thus, Storm Austen, the first storm of the 2026\u20132027 winter season, was named by the \u201cWest\u201d group, following a proposal from Ireland, and retained its name when it reached mainland France<\/p>\n

Sources\u00a0: M\u00e9t\u00e9o France, Met Office <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\u00e9but septembre, M\u00e9t\u00e9o France a publi\u00e9 la liste des 21 noms retenus pour les temp\u00eates hivernales susceptibles de toucher le territoire m\u00e9tropolitain au cours de la saison 2026-2027. Depuis 1954, l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Berlin baptisait tous les anticyclones et d\u00e9pressions touchant l\u2019Europe. Mais en 2017, une nouvelle organisation est mise en place entre les pays du […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weather2c.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}