Campaigners are right, we should name storms after fossil fuel companies
In what’s becoming a late summer tradition almost as unwelcome as an actual rain shower, the Met Office is about to release its storm names for 2025/26.
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“Is your grandma a force of nature? Does your best friend cause an impact wherever they go? Now you can give them the recognition they deserve, by naming a storm after them,” a chummy press release states.
In case you weren’t aware that a thunderstorm that led to mass flooding might have been named after someone’s cat, the Met Office has for several years been giving you - its weather victims - the chance to put forward names for what it deems to be significant events.
It’s become such a big deal that there is even an announcement video, broadcast live on YouTube, where the storm names (Anna, Betty, Carl, and so on…) for the next 12 months are revealed. The names have even premiered on Good Morning Britain, maybe during a quiet spell for Peppa Pig family news.
I don’t mean to totally discredit the motives behind naming storms. It is done with good intentions, to bring extreme weather events to widespread attention and allow for those affected to take preventative action.
But does adding names to storms in this way not slightly trivialise what can be destructive and devastating for those affected? “Aw, look at Storm Harry… Always causing trouble! Oh there goes Storm Jane, she’s a right one isn’t she?” (I only feel fortunate that there have not been so many from September to August that we’ve ever reached the need for a Storm William).
Storms should go on being named, but instead of cutesifying them by naming them after a “force of nature grandma,” we should do what eco-campaigners have suggested and apportion names to those who have brought more extreme weather events in the climate crisis.
The Met Office, which says there is “no current trend for the intensity of wind storms”, has reportedly vetoed naming a storm after a brand name. But that doesn’t rule out Storm Fossil Fuel, Storm Big Oil, or Storm SUV per se. Nor Storm Donald for that matter.
Organisers are still wary of giving Joe Public too much power after the Boaty McBoatface farce, but if we’re going to pile in and make suggestions - this is one naming competition that could make a difference.