Why do we give storms names? And how Jake, Katie and Nigel are next

Storms Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry – and now Imogen – have battered our shores in recent months.

But how are these names chosen? And why do storms need names?

We love talking about, and moaning about, the weather, and last year we were given the chance by the Met Office to name storms for the autumn and winter of 2015/16.

The idea behind the pilot project was to help raise awareness of severe weather before it strikes and to ensure greater public safety.

Attaching a name to a weather event was found to help people track its progress, to make it easier to refer to on social media and to allow people to prepare more.

Storms are given names – alternating with men’s and women’s names – when they are deemed to have the potential to cause medium or high wind impacts on the UK.

Before the new system was introduced, naming was random, with the same storm sometimes referred to by different names.

So, with Imogen abating now, which names are next?

The winning names for the rest of the alphabet (there are no names for the less common letters of Q, U, X, Y and Z) are: Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.