Met Office unveils public-chosen names for the 2026-27 UK storm season

As meteorological autumn begins, the Met Office announced the official list of names for the 2026-27 UK storm season, with Austen, Boelo and Chloe leading the alphabetical sequence. The naming scheme is a collaborative effort with Ireland's Met Éireann and the Netherlands' KNMI, drawing on more than 40,000 public submissions gathered in 2025. Storms are assigned a name when forecasts predict medium or high impacts—typically strong winds, but also heavy rain, snow or flooding—that could warrant amber or red warnings.

The chosen names aim to reflect communities across the three nations and sometimes commemorate notable figures, such as Austen Nagle, the first director of the Irish Meteorological Service. Names that have already been used for Atlantic tropical systems, like ex-Hurricane Erin, are retained. To maintain consistency with the US National Hurricane Center, letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are excluded from the list. While the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands name storms together, a name given by Met Éireann or KNMI does not guarantee impacts in the UK.