Met Éireann and its counterparts in the UK and the Netherlands have released the list of storm names for the 2023/24 season, with seven names chosen by Ireland’s scientists.

The meteorological services each chose seven of the 21 storm names. The first storm will be named Agnes, while the season will round off with Storm Walid, if the entire roster, which is used in alphabetical order, is used.

The Irish contributions are named after prominent Irish scientists, to honour their important contributions.

One Irish contribution, Storm Jocelyn, is named for Irish astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell. In 1967, she discovered the first pulsating radio stars, known as pulsars.

Reacting to the announcement, she said that she was “delighted to feature in such a distinguished list celebrating science.”

“I hope that if a potential ‘Storm Jocelyn’ happens, it may be a useful stirring-up, rather than a destructive event,” she said.

The other six Irish choices were: Agnes, Fergus, Kathleen, Lillian, Nicholas and Vincent.

These reference Agnes Mary Clerke, an astronomer and science writer, and Fergus O’Rourke, an entomologist who studied ants. Two Kathleens were referenced: Kathleen McNulty and Kathleen Lonsdale, a computer programmer and crystallographer respectively.

Lillian Bland was an aviator who was potentially the first woman in the world to build and fly her own plane, the Bland Mayfly. Nicholas Callan was a physicist and inventor of the induction coil, and Vincent Barry was an organic chemist. 

The full list is as follows:

• Agnes
• Babet
• Ciarán
• Debi
• Elin
• Fergus
• Gerrit
• Henk
• Isha
• Jocelyn
• Kathleen
• Lilian
• Minnie
• Nicholas
• Olga
• Piet
• Regina
• Stuart
• Tamiko
• Vincent
• Walid

This marks the ninth year of cooperation between the services on naming storms. Met Éireann and the UK Met Office began the practice in 2015, and the Dutch KNMI joined in 2019.

Storms are named when they could cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in one of the three partner countries.

Met Éireann said that this enables consistent, authoritative messaging to support the public to prepare for, and stay safe during potentially severe weather events.

KNMI Senior Forecaster and Team Manager Jos Diepeveen said that naming the storms helps to raise awareness when severe and extreme weather is approaching.

“Through recognizable names, we hope to reach as many people as possible with our warning before the weather strikes,” he said.

One of the Dutch submissions, Storm Babet, was provided by a visitor to the KNMI’s open day last October. She signed her own name, saying “I was born during a storm”.