Why Storm Benjamin is not on Met Office list of names

The Met Office has given a yellow warning for wind and rain as Storm Benjamin hits, the crux of the downpour being felt over nearly all of England - while the most severe wind will be in the east of England and Wales.

This follows on the back of Storm Amy, which brought damage to power lines in hundreds of locations across the UK when it struck in early October.

However, Benjamin is not considered the second named storm of the 2025-2026 season, with the Met Office having chosen Storm Bram to bear that name.

Why is the storm called Benjamin and not Bram?

The Met Office works in conjunction with Met Eireann in Ireland and Dutch weather service KMNI to compile an A-Z list of storm names every year, usually asking for the public’s help.

A full list was published in August, from Amy to Wubbo - and these will be what all notable storms are named as, one-by-one, for all storms that originate in the Netherlands, UK, and Ireland until the end of August 2026.

However, storms that originate in other countries are not given a name in this alphabet and this applies to Benjamin which originated in France and was named by the agency Météo France.

The most severe impact of Storm Benjamin will be felt in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The storm names given for 2025-2026 by the Met Office, KMNI and Met Eireann

Here are the names and where they originated.

• Amy (Met Office),
• Bram (KNMI),
• Chandra (Ch-an-dra) (Met Eireann),
• Dave (Met Office),
• Eddie (KNMI),
• Fionnuala (Fee-new-lah) (Met Éireann),
• Gerard (Jer-ard) (Met Éireann),
• Hannah (KNMI),
• Isla (Met Office),
• Janna (Yah-nah) (KNMI),
• Kasia (Ka-shaa) (Met Éireann),
• Lilith (KNMI),
• Marty (Met Éireann),
• Nico (KNMI),
• Oscar (Met Office),
• Patrick (Met Éireann),
• Ruby (Met Office),
• Stevie (Met Office),
• Tadhg (Tie-g) (Met Éireann),
• Violet (Met Office),
• Wubbo (Vuh-boh) (KNMI)