On a trip to town yesterday had BBC Radio 1 on. One of the presenters was talking about Desmond and how stormy it was. She then said Americans call these storms 'hurricanes' and in the UK we give them names like Desmond. Oh dear... 

Having worked in the Philippines I soon got to know there is a system for naming storms twice... After January 2000, Filipino forecasters continued their tradition of naming storms that enter the Philippines Area of Responsibility and so there are often two names for each storm, the PAGASA name and the so-called "international name". In some ways it seems this is the case here too with Eire giving a local name and the UK another. 

The term bagyo in the Philippines seems to cover everything from a small tropical depression with heavy rain to a fully fledged typhoon. Can get a little confusing as well especially as a depression is also called a typhoon in many peoples thinking. 

Nick

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Agree the detail might be a mess  as stated above but if the naming/hype over desmond has saved a life or stopped a bad injury due to someone being more aware than they might of been then there can be no real arguemement that it is worth doing.

Matt Hugo made an interesting observation on Twitter. The low and its frontal systems that gave the terrible flooding wasn't named.

The naming system is garbage. No disrespect to Cumbria but this system was worse in terms of impact because it affected a greater populace. Yet it was not given a name.

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I hadn't even thought of this problem!

I'll add it to my list of reasons why this was a stupid idea.

 

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That's a good point; since naming something personifies it, surely its impact on human lives should govern that. I suppose these storms have to be named before landfall- adds to the sensationalism. Perhaps they're attributed names according to their potential effects on human lives? I suppose it makes even more of a mockery if we wait to see how bad the destruction is, then baptise it on its way out.

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What happened in Cumbria was the same more or less what happened just a touch further south on Boxing Day. The centre of Desmond was miles away.

Both quasi stationary fronts. Yet one is called Desmond and the other was not. 

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Storm Frank on its way

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Derrick Ryall, Head of the Public Weather Service at the Met Office, said: "The aim of this pilot is to provide a single authoritative naming system for the storms that affect UK and Ireland.

"We have seen how naming storms elsewhere in the world raises awareness of severe weather before it strikes. We hope that naming storms in line with the official severe weather warnings here will do the same and ensure everyone can keep themselves, their property and businesses safe and protected at times of severe weather."

Boxing Day storm went unnamed. A flaw here.

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Which is really odd?

So what is the criteria >

Wind strength ? Amount of Rain?

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