Why do storms like Storm Austen get names, and who picks them?

Storms get names so that people notice them and can talk about them without confusion. In western Europe, the UK's Met Office, Ireland's Met Éireann and the Netherlands' KNMI work together as a "Western Group". Nobody names every gale: the agencies give a name when their forecasts trigger a high-level weather warning, to raise public awareness. Each season has its own alphabetical list of names, and the first storm that qualifies takes the first name.

As of 21 October 2026, the most recent example is Storm Austen. The Met Office named it on 20 October 2026, making it the first named storm of the 2026-2027 season for the Western Group. Ahead of its arrival, forecasters warned of widespread gusts of 50 to 60 mph, with peak coastal gusts above 70 mph. Germany does it differently: the Free University of Berlin names the same storm Luise.

Naming storms is not new, but the style has changed. Until the second half of the 19th century European windstorms were usually named by their year, their date or the saint's day on which they struck. The modern habit began with a student: in 1954 Karla Wege suggested that the Free University of Berlin should give names to areas of low and high pressure. In 2015 the Met Office and Met Éireann launched a pilot project, "Name our storms", that asked the public for names, and Storm Abigail was the first of the 2015/2016 season.