FORMER MET ÉIREANN forecaster Evelyn Cusack has joked that “the shoe is on the other foot” after her name was included on Ireland’s new list of storm names.

Met Éireann today unveiled the 21 names which could be used for storms during the 2026/27 season, with Evelyn among seven selected by the Irish meteorological service.

The name honours both Cusack, who was the first female head of forecasting at Met Éireann and the longest-serving TV weather presenter, and Evelyn Murphy, the first woman meteorologist to present the weather forecast on RTÉ television.

Speaking to The Journal, Cusack admitted that while she hopes Storm Evelyn does not cause any serious damage, a small part of her would like to see the name used.

“I can’t tell a lie,” Cusack said.

“Maybe if it just happened over a field somewhere and didn’t impact on anyone,” she joked.

Cusack was closely involved in the introduction of storm naming to Ireland, which began in 2015 when Met Éireann and the UK’s Met Office jointly launched the system. She later chaired the European Met Services’ Storm Naming Working Group as the practice expanded across Europe.

The idea was to give potentially damaging storms a single, memorable name so that warnings were easier for the public and media to follow and people were more likely to take action.

Cusack admitted that it was an unusual experience to find herself on the other side of the process.

“The shoe is on the other foot now,” Cusack said.

“All I can hope is that if it happens, Evelyn is not a really bad storm. But then again, I’m retired, so it’s not my problem.”

She acknowledged there could be one downside to having a potentially destructive weather system bearing her name.

“If we’re in the middle of winter and there’s all these storm warnings out, I’d say people would be cursing the name Evelyn.”

Evelyn Cusack pictured in 2017. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The 2026/27 storm season begins today and runs until 31 August next year, with Met Éireann again working with the UK’s Met Office and the Netherlands’ KNMI on the naming system.

Each service contributed seven names to this year’s list. They are: Austen, Boelo, Chloe, Dano, Evelyn, Finn, Gwendolyn, Heather, Ivy, Jade, Kilian, Laoise, Miriam, Nicola, Olaf, Phelim, Ruban, Shaun, Theo, Vesna and Wende.

Met Éireann has used this year’s list to mark the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Meteorological Service, with several names recognising figures from its history.

Cusack said the choice of Evelyn was particularly significant because of the women it represents.

Murphy was the first woman to work as a meteorologist at Met Éireann and became its first female meteorologist to appear on RTÉ television in 1983.

Cusack recalled just how significant Murphy’s television debut was at the time, saying photographs of her presenting the forecast appeared on newspaper front pages the following day.

“I think it’s in honour of the trailblazers, if you like.”

Another name selected by Met Éireann, Miriam, honours Miriam Lyons, who became the first woman to work for the service as an operational meteorological officer in 1978.

Cusack said the changes within the profession during her lifetime were remarkable, recalling that weather forecasting was once regarded almost exclusively as a male occupation.

“When we joined the Met Service, it was the weatherman,” she said.

“It’s hard to imagine now.”

The other historically significant Irish names are Austen, after Austen H Nagle, the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service, and Kilian, after former director P Kilian Rohan.

Heather, Laoise and Phelim were selected from names nominated by members of the Irish public last year.

There are some more unusual stories behind the British and Dutch selections.

Finn was nominated by the mother of a two-year-old who described him as “a force to be reckoned with”, while Ivy takes its name from a nine-month-old Labrador described by its owner as “the absolute destructor”. Shaun, meanwhile, is named after Shaun the Sheep following a UK public vote.

A storm is only named when it is expected to result in medium or high impacts in Ireland, the UK or the Netherlands. The service expected to experience the greatest impact, or to be affected first, generally gives the storm its name.

Last year’s storm season saw the names Amy, Bram, Chandra and Dave used from the Irish, British and Dutch list.

Enniscorthy experienced heavy flooding during Storm Chandra in January. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The list did not make it as far as E, meaning the proposed Storm Eddie never materialised.

However, in 2024, Storm Éowyn caused a nationwide alert and widespread damage due to record high-speed winds.

Cusack, who retired from Met Éireann in 2023, said she no longer watches television weather forecasts because she would find herself critiquing them after spending decades doing the job herself.

She has not entirely switched off from the weather, however.

Instead, she said she “religiously” checks the Met Éireann app, usually last thing at night, first thing in the morning and throughout the day, particularly because she now spends a lot of time outdoors.

Cusack has also been busy since retiring, publishing her book They Say It Might Rain, which looks back on her career and explains, among other things, the story behind the naming of storms.