MET Éireann refused a number of storm names proposed by the UK Met Office because their suggestions were ‘too Irish’, it has been revealed.
The Irish forecaster collaborates with its British counterpart each year to decide on storm titles for the coming season.
Among the names vetoed by Met Éireann in recent months was ‘Storm Nathan’ – rejected because "we have a big C&W star in Ireland called Nathan Carter”.
The Times reports that Irish meteorologists also forced amendments to names such as ‘Patrick’ for being clichéd.
“The name ‘Patrick’ is a bit cliche-Irish (and also of course closely associated with a specific date, March 17) so suggest Peter or Paul instead here?” Gerald Fleming, Met Éireann’s former head of forecasting, wrote in one email last summer.
Which storm is next?? @MetEireann published a lovely graphic for #irishstorm pic.twitter.com/BEpUm347Nu
— CDETB CDU (@cdetbcdu) January 25, 2018
Nevertheless, Fleming asked for ‘Daniel’ to be changed to ‘Donal’, ‘Finn’ to ‘Fionn’ and ‘Miranda’ to ‘Maeve’.
The changes caused the British forecasters some pronunciation difficulties, with the Met Office asking: “Is Fionn [pronounced] Fee-on or still FINN?
“Would it be NEE-ul, or NYE-ul, as I know both variants for Niall?”
So far this year Ireland has seen storms Aileen, Ophelia, Brian, Eleanor, and Hector – with storms Karen, Larry, Octavia and Paul still to come.
As in previous years, the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z will not be used to comply with international storm naming rules.
