When a low pressure system develops in from the Atlantic Metcheck uses the allocated name from the DWD (German Met Office).
Why? Good question. Well mainly to help people understand and keep track of areas of low pressure affecting our day to day lives. When two low pressure systems rattle in one after another, it can sometimes get a little confusing and you may hear a "gale is on the way" well after the event has actually happened. So, we decided to do something about it.
Who names the low pressure systems? The low pressure systems are allocated names by some very clever folks over in Germany at the Institute fur Meteorologie. You can check them out Here.
The UK Met Office and Met Eireann also have a naming system for storms affecting the UK and Ireland. If these are allocated we display these in the column next to the European name.
How do we class the storms? We class the storms based on the Beaufort Scale (which goes from 0 to 12).
Beaufort Scale 0 - Winds <1mph - Low Beaufort Scale 1 - Winds 1-3 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 2 - Winds 4-7 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 3 - Winds 8-12 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 4 - Winds 13-18 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 5 - Winds 19-24 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 6 - Winds 25-31 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 7 - Winds 32-38 mph - Low Beaufort Scale 8 - Winds 39-46 mph - Gale Beaufort Scale 9 - Winds 47-54 mph - Severe Gale Beaufort Scale 10 - Winds 55-63 mph - Storm Beaufort Scale 11 - Winds 64-72 mph - Violent Storm Beaufort Scale 12 - Winds 73 mph+ - Hurricane
On Metcheck you will find us using the German (DWD) naming system as all low pressure systems are named once they have closed circulations, we then grade the systems based on the maximum wind strength of the system.
If the UKMO or Met Eireann name a system then we may decide to use this name for a time while it is crossing the UK (depending on the naming authority), however we will continue to use the DWD name, especially once it has left UK waters. |