NI weather: A quiet winter and not one storm is named

Storm Barra caused heavy rain and strong winds across Northern Ireland in December 2021

It was the quietest winter season for years.

There were no locally-named storms for the first time since storms started to be given names eight years ago.

In 2015, the UK and Ireland's weather services joined forces to name stormy weather systems in order to raise public awareness of severe weather.

The Dutch weather service, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), decided to join the storm-naming initiative in 2019.

Overall, the Met Office, Met Éireann, and KNMI have named 50 storms since 2015.

Storm Dudley, as seen in Portstewart in 2022

Twenty-nine of them occurred in the winter months of December, January and February.

The stormiest season was the winter of 2015/16 when six storms were named during winter, starting with Storm Desmond in December, and ending with Storm Imogen in February.

Storm Desmond caused flooding in Carrick-on-Shannon in 2015

But 2022/23 is the first time that no storms have been named by the organisations.

One storm, Otto, did hit on 16 February but this was named by the Danish.

"The position of the jet stream for most of the winter meant the UK and Ireland have been mostly on the stable side," said the Met Office's John Wylie.

"This has resulted in the Atlantic storm track being further north and west than normal, with a higher than average incidence of high pressure."

That does not necessarily mean we are out of the woods just yet with regards to storms.

"I would say it is just natural variation," said Mr Wylie.

"A jet stream reset will take it well south later next week so there is still time for named storms yet."

Storm Barra generated these waves in Whitehead in 2021

Although the spring and summer months are normally quieter than winter, there have been five named storms in previous years during the seasons.

There has been just one in spring, Storm Hannah in April 2019.

Four others took places in the summer months of June, July and August.

The latest in the season was in August 2020 when Storm Francis hit.