Revealed: Met Éireann announces new list of storm names for winter

Seagulls play in the swell and swirling gusts at the Lough in Cork during Storm Bram last year. File picture: Chani Anderson

Met Éireann is honouring historical figures from its history as meteorologists revealed that Austen, Boelo and Chloe will be the first named storms of this winter.

Met Éireann, in partnership with the UK Met Office and the Dutch national weather forecasting service KNMI, has announced the list of storm names for the 2026/27 season.

Each of the weather agencies selects seven names, with Met Éireann’s selection featuring four historically significant names in Austen, Evelyn, Kilian and Miriam. Three more were derived from a longlist of nominations proposed through a public campaign run last year — they are Heather, Laoise and Phelim.

The three organisations have been naming storms since 2015, with the list running from early September to the following August.

Since 2015, Met Éireann and the UK Met Office have been working together on the naming programme, and were joined by the KNMI in 2019.

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A storm is named when it could result in "medium" or "high" impacts in one of the three partner countries. Naming storms allows for authoritative and consistent communications with the public to enable them to prepare for, and stay safe, during potentially severe weather events.

When a storm is forecast, the national weather service that expects the biggest impact from the severe weather or is likely to be affected first, names the storm. As well as naming a storm, relevant warnings may be issued for wind, rain, or snow, or a combination of these conditions. 

The issuing of storm names coincides with the start of autumn when the likelihood of low-pressure systems and the potential for storms severe enough to be named increases.

In the last year, four names were used from the list, reaching the letter D with Storm Dave in April 1, although Ireland saw impacts from a further three storms named by other European meteorological services – Storms Claudia and Goretti.

Under naming conventions used for storms in the North Atlantic, the list runs alphabetically, missing out Q, U, X, Y and Z.

Met Éireann's 90th anniversary

To mark its 90th anniversary, Met Éireann selected names that celebrate figures from its history. Austen is in honour of Austen Nagle, the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service (IMS) and Evelyn is named after Evelyn Murphy, the first woman to present the weather on RTÉ.

Killian was chosen for P Kilian Rohan, who was director of the IMS from 1978 to 1981. He wrote the first authoritative description of the Irish climate, The Climate of Ireland in 1976. Mr Rohan led the move of the IMS to its new headquarters in Glasnevin in 1979.

The final historically significant name, Miriam, was chosen for Miriam Lyons, the first woman to work in Met Éireann as an operational Meteorological Officer in 1978. She was also the first Irish woman to fly in a jet fighter when posted in Casement Aerodrome.

The names chosen by the UK Met Office include Chloe, which was selected after being put forward more than 120 times, including by the mother of a five-year-old weather enthusiast who is “fascinated by the weather” but can also “create a storm by herself” when she is tired.

The name Finn was suggested for a two-year-old boy described by his family as “wild and a force to be reckoned with”, while Ivy was nominated in honour of a nine-month-old Labrador puppy affectionately known as “the absolute destructor”.

Meanwhile, KNMI picked names from more than 3,000 suggestions submitted by the public, including Boelo (pronounced as Boo-loh) — a nearly extinct name from the east Groningen region that has been passed down through the nominator’s family for generations.

Met Éireann head of forecasting Eoin Sherlock said: “Naming storms helps Met Éireann in our mission to protect life and property through the provision of world-class weather, climate, and flood services. Using consistent names and communications allows us and other public safety organisations to increase awareness of severe and impactful weather alongside our weather warnings.

“We know that naming storms makes it easier for people to track important and up-to-date forecast and safety-related information as we can see from the levels of traffic and activity through our website and across social media platforms during storm events.

“2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Meteorological Service and we are proud to be able to recognise some of the significant contributors to our history in the list of storm names this year, such as the first director of the Service in 1936, Austen Nagle, and the first woman to hold an operational role as a meteorological officer, Miriam Lyons.

“As we approach the start of the new storm season, we take the opportunity to encourage to the public to engage with relevant forecasts and safety information during storms and all other extreme weather events.”

This year’s storm names, and the country they came from, are:

– Austen (Ireland) 

– Boelo (Boo-loh) (Netherlands) 

– Chloe (UK) 

– Dano (Dah-noh) (Netherlands) 

– Evelyn (Ireland) 

– Finn (UK) 

– Gwendolyn (Netherlands) 

– Heather (Ireland) 

– Ivy (UK) 

– Jade (Netherlands) 

– Kilian (Ireland) 

– Laoise (Ireland) 

– Miriam (Ireland) 

– Nicola (UK)

 – Olaf (Netherlands) 

– Phelim (Ireland) 

– Ruban (UK) 

– Shaun (UK) 

– Theo (UK) 

– Vesna (Vehs-nuh) (Netherlands) 

– Wende (Vhen-duh) (Netherlands)