New storm names for winter revealed by Met Office

Aiden, Bella and Christoph will be the names of the first storms to blow in across the UK and Ireland this winter.

That's according to the new list revealed by the UK's Met Office, Ireland's Met Eireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

Gavin, Julia, Minnie, Oscar, Phobe, Ravi and Wilson are also on the list of storm names for 2020-21.

The Name our Storms campaign, which was first introduced by the weather forecasting organisations in 2015, aims to raise awareness of the threat and impact of severe weather before it arrives.

The new storm names for 2020-2021

From 1 September, the first storm to hit the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands will be named Aiden, while the second storm will be Bella.

Others on the list include Darcy, Evert, Fleur, Heulwen, Iain, Klaas, Lilah, Naia, Saidhbhin, Tobias and Veronica.

As in previous years, Q, U, X, Y and Z will not be used, to follow international storm-naming rules.

August's extreme weather

It was a wet August in the UK with lots of rain

The announcement comes after a month of extreme weather in the UK, which has included two storms and a heatwave.

Last week, the UK was battered by Storm Francis, which saw winds of 80 miles per hour (mph) hit parts of the UK, days after Storm Ellen struck.

The storms followed a spell of hot weather, which included a high of 36.4 Celsius (C) at Heathrow Airport in London.

Will Lang, head of the national severe weather warning service at the Met Office, said: "Although it's too early to anticipate what weather this autumn and winter will bring, we are prepared with a new list of names to help raise awareness of severe weather before it hits."