Who Names Storms in Europe?

Europe does not have a single continent-wide authority for naming storms. Names are assigned by national meteorological services that coordinate in regional groups. When a storm is expected to cause significant impacts, the first service to issue a high-level warning uses the next name from its list and neighboring services adopt it.

Who does the naming?

• Western Group: UK Met Office, Met Éireann (Ireland), KNMI (Netherlands).
• Southwest Group: Météo-France, AEMET (Spain), IPMA (Portugal).
• Northern Group: DMI (Denmark), MET Norway, SMHI (Sweden).
• Central Europe: Free University of Berlin assigns names to high and low pressure systems that are widely used in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
• Other areas: some services in the eastern Mediterranean maintain their own national lists.

Recent examples:

• 2024: Storm Henk (Western Group list).
• 2024: Storm Isha (Western Group list).
• 2024: Storm Jocelyn (Western Group list).
• 2024: Storm Nelson (Southwest Group list).
• 2024: Storm Kathleen (Western Group list).
• 2023: Storm Agnes (Western Group list).
• 2023: Storm Babet (Western Group list).
• 2022: Storm Eunice (Western Group list).
• 2022: Storm Malik (Northern Group list).
• 2020: Storm Alex (Southwest Group list).