Is Brian a bit windy? Irish storm names for 2017/18 released!

The storm names for the 2017-18 storm season have been announced by Met Eireann and the UK Met Office.

The first storm of the year will be female and will be named ‘Aileen’. The gender of the first storm alternates each year and follows Angus in the 2016-17 season. See the full list of names below!

Gerald Fleming, Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann, said: "Last winter was a very quiet one weather-wise and we only worked our way through five named storms, from Angus to Ewan. While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one we are prepared with a whole new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us.

“As before Met Eireann forecasters will work in close co-operation with our colleagues from the UK Met Office to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather."

Derrick Ryall, Head of Public Weather Services at the Met Office, said: “Last year was another successful pilot of the storm naming project and it’s great to be now making it operational. Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK, crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or their property.”

The names for the next year have once again been compiled by Met Eireann and UK Met Office. As in previous years, Q; U; X; Y and Z will not be used to comply with international storm naming conventions.