An area of low air pressure has delivered gale force winds in northern regions today, that low has been named as Storm Malik by the Danish Met Office, but where do we get our storm names from here in the UK and Ireland?

Storm names are officially designated by the national forecasters from the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Public suggestions from all three countries were collected to name the next 21 storms in the 2021/22 cycle.

November's Storm Arwen was the first named storm of the season and was followed by Barra in December. Further storms will be as follows:

The eagle eyed among you may have realised something amiss, in accordance with international storm naming conventions the letters, Q, U, X, Y, and Z will not be used.

These five letters are not utilised in part due to the lack of variety in names beginning with the letters and also to maintain convention with the US hurricane warning system.

Storms receive their names when there is the potential for an amber or red warning in the UK or an orange and red warning in Ireland based on a combination of potential impacts and the likelihood of those impacts happening.