It’s that time of year once again – the Met Office has officially revealed the list of storm names for 2022/23.
This is the eighth year in a row that storms have been named.
The Met Office explains that storms are given a name to help raise awareness, help provide “consistent and authoritative messaging”, and inform the public of the risks of upcoming adverse weather conditions – and this year, have been named in partnership with the Met Éireann from Ireland and KNMI from The Netherlands.
They will be named when a system is forecast to cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ impacts in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands, the Met Office adds.
Impacts from rain and snow will also be considered in the naming process.
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This season’s storm names are Antoni, Betty, Cillian, Daisy, Elliot, Fleur, Glen, Hendrika, Ide, Johanna, Khalid, Loes, Mark, Nelly, Owain, Priya, Ruadhan, Sam, Tobias, Val, and Wouter.
The Met Office’s names in the list have come from submissions from the public, with Daisy, Glen, Khalid and Owain some of those submitted, while Betty came out on top as the winner of a public vote on Met Office Twitter – with over 12,000 votes cast to select the name for the letter B.
KNMI’s selected names – including Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna and Loes – are named after influential Dutch scientists.
Met Éireann’s submissions include Cillian, Fleur, Íde, and Nelly.
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“We know from seven years of doing this that naming storms works,” explained Will Lang, Head of Situational Awareness at the Met Office – who leads responses in times of severe weather.
“Last year, Storms Arwen and Eunice brought some severe impacts to the UK.
“We know that naming storms helps to raise awareness and give the public the information they need to stay safe in times of severe weather, and recent impactful storms demonstrated our ongoing need to communicate severe weather in a clear way to help the public protect themselves.
“Naming storms is just one way that we know helps to raise awareness of severe weather and provides clarity for the public when they need it most.”
— Barefoot Spooky Bartender 👣💀🍹 (@barefoottiki) October 10, 2024
“Be assured there won’t be 14408mph winds, hurricane force winds or overnight temperatures of 404°C.
“It is being looked at and hopefully sorted asap.”
BBC Weather shared: “You may have noticed some data issues on our app and website. We are working hard to fix it quickly. Sorry – please bear with us.
“In the meantime here are Thursday’s weather headlines: -Colder, clearer air moving in -Rain and drizzle in south -Blustery showers near east coast”
And national treasure Carol Kirkwood said live on air: “We are having a technical glitch at the moment. It’s showing wind speeds far too fast, in fact, hurricane strength and that is not the case at all.
“Please don’t be alarmed. We are aware of it and on it.”
At the time of writing, the BBC Weather forecast service is still predicting hurricane force winds for the UK. Eek.
Liam Gallagher says Oasis reunion rehearsals have begun after blatant hints at tour support acts
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher has confirmed that rehearsals for the Oasis reunion are now underway and has been teasing the acts that could be supporting them on the tour.
The incomparable frontman has been very vocal on social media (more so than usual) ever since the talk of their comeback was actually confirmed to be real, though we’ll admit we’re still having to pinch ourselves every few days.
Nevertheless, the Oasis reunion IS happening, the tickets have gone and even a slate of North American dates have now sold out along with an Australian tour set to do exactly the same – though there has been some furore over price differences.
Although the gigs are still a little ways away, practice for summer 2025 has to start sometime and after a fan asked Gallagher a point-blank question online, he had a simple but exciting answer.
The idea of the two actually being back in the same room still feels so surreal but we’re SO glad they are.
After the pair were first snapped posing for the reunion press shots by photographer Simon Emmett, it sounds like the two are not just in each other company but now practising those songs they first played together some 20-30 years ago.
The Britpop icons and legendary rock band also announced a new special collection of the seven-inch Definitely Maybe single pressings to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’; there are only 4000 up for grabs and they come in the actual 1996 cigarette-style CD (vinyl) box.
After rehearsals are all said and done, one thing that we still don’t know for sure is who will be supporting Oasis on their reunion tour, but that hasn’t stopped the 52-year-old from having fun with some rather heavy hints.
We don’t know how blatant or serious any of these names are, or if this is just a clever red herring or two, but let’s just say we’d be happy with any of them.
As well as Manic Street Preachers and Cast – the lattermost having already supported Liam on his Definitely Maybe anniversary tour – there seems to be a lot of debate around whether a potential Richard Ashcroft support would include the rest of The Verve, who haven’t played together since 2017.
That being said, Blossoms have been heavily linked with the tour since they were the band to break the first reunion teaser at their massive Wythenshawe Park gig; there have also been rumblings of Kasabian, The K’s, New Order, Gene Gallagher’s band Villanelle and many more.
Again, we’ve got nothing concrete yet so you’ll just have to take LG at his word – just do so with a big fistful of salt.
Right, we’ll give you three support slots: who would be your dream warm-up acts for the Oasis reunion?