Assignment of names for weather events

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When assigning names to weather events , different methods and rules have been used depending on the region, since it has become common practice to name weather events such as storms and hurricanes , also in the form of the low and high pressure areas causing them.

history

From ancient times it was customary to name weather events either after an area in which they had the most consequences ( Thuringian Sündflut  1613), the harmful effect or special event ( year without summer  1816), as well as after the date that was previously in common use after the Heiligenkalender was named (" Burchardiflut " 1634), or simply somehow "the great one" (also called "Grote Mandränke", the great drowning of the people '; Great Freeze , The great freezing', California 1894/95). This vivid method of making certain events more memorable is still common for storms today ( Western European hurricane  1987, various Rhine floods or Alpine floods  e.g. 2005; avalanche winter  1951 for the Alpine region, hot summer  2003; Capella hurricane  1976 after one sunken ship; New Year's storm  1992 according to the date; general summer of the century according to the annuality ). Sarcastic names are also known, especially in English, such as Dust Bowl for the great drought of the 1930s, or The Beast from the East for a stormy frost over the British Isles in 2018.

The U.S. Weather Service began using female first names in alphabetical order for typhoons in the Pacific during World War II . This method simplified communication, especially when several typhoons occurred at the same time, so that it was also used for hurricanes in the Atlantic from 1953. These naming systems have become the international standard for extreme tropical weather.

Since 1954, the Meteorological Institute of the Free University of Berlin has been giving names specifically to all action centers (low and high pressure areas) that influence the weather in Germany . The specialty of this system is that it names all lows and highs, not only those that degenerate into storms. The fact that the lows have names only became known in 1990 when the media used the names of the hurricanes Vivian and Wiebke .

The Committee of the World Meteorological Organization  (WMO) recommended alternating male and female names in alphabetical order every year for high and low pressure areas in order to avoid discrimination against women , because low pressure areas usually bring "bad" weather, while highs bring "nice" weather . Male first names were also used alternately for the Pacific in 1978 and in 1979 for the Atlantic. In 1998 the discussion also began in the German-speaking area, whereupon the Free University of Berlin decided to change male and female first names every year.

These systems, originally only widespread among meteorologists, have found widespread media presence in the 21st century (this is how the Danish Weather Service emphasizes the hashtag- suitability of its names in order to meet the need for quickly available current information). Their disadvantage, that they are only restricted to certain regions, but that weather-effective action centers remain unnamed elsewhere, has led to further regionalized naming schemes, especially in Europe - with the result that some storms, depending on the country, are now increasing among the general public operate under several names (such as the storm in October 2013 : St Jude's / Christian / Simone ).

In addition to the names for the volatile high and low pressure areas of the west wind belt that have a direct impact on the weather, there are also some named highly stable systems that have a permanent impact on weather and climate, such as the Azores high or the polar vortex . These names also apply to phases of the situation and tracks, such as Iceland low or Eastern Europe high . A special form is Vb-Wetterlage according to a classification scheme (Bebber 1891). For weather events in the true sense, these are rarely name-forming.

Regional naming

Central Europe (FUB, Germany)

The names for the low and high pressure areas that influence the weather in Europe have been given by the Meteorological Institute of the Free University of Berlin since 1954 . This practice was based on a suggestion made by the then student Karla Weg, who later became a meteorologist at ZDF . Since 1998, the low pressure areas have received female first names in even years and the high pressure areas male, in odd years the reverse is true. When the alphabet is through, you start again at «A». Decaying cores and offshoots of already named systems are numbered ("I", "II", "III", ...), they can later be spatially far apart. Originally the names came from 10 lists with 26 names each in alphabetical order, but since November 2002 a “weather godfather” can also take on a name sponsorship for a fee and determine the name of the respective low or high. He receives detailed material such as weather maps, certificates and the “life story” of the printed image. The money goes to student weather observation at the institute. Today all names are given through the weather sponsor campaign . Low pressure area sponsorships are cheaper because they are short-lived and the reputation of a high is better. There are about 100 lows per year (an average of four to five alphabet runs), but only about 50 highs (an average of two runs). Reserving a name costs 356 euros for a high pressure area and 237 euros for a low pressure area.

The German names are also used in some neighboring countries, but not officially, even if z. For example, media use is increasing in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.

The FU Berlin only names those action centers that have a weather effect in Germany. The highs and lows of the Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe are typically often neglected. Therefore, the names given in Germany are largely uncommon there. Even lows arriving from the Atlantic do not get their name until they touch Central Europe, which leads to conflicts with the most recent new systems in western and southwestern Europe . Those aged Atlantic hurricanes and west Atlantic subtropical lows that were named by the US weather service NHC as the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center commissioned by the WMO for the tropical Northwest Atlantic have kept the old name for several years, with the addition of "ex-" throughout outside the alphabetical order - for example the Europaorkane ex-Katia (August 2011) or ex-Gonzalo (October 2014).

Scandinavia (NMI, Norway / SMHI, Sweden / DMI, Denmark)

In Scandinavia, the custom of naming storms according to the day they occurred or worked was retained longer. Since 1995, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NMI) has been assigning names according to a list of names drawn up annually in advance, as in the American system, but only for more supra-regional extreme weather (Ekstremværlista) . The institute uses Norwegian names, but avoids the names of the royal family and other names of prominent people, and the initial letters “Q”, “W”, “X”, “Z” (“Y”, i 'is common in Norwegian) , and «Æ», «Ø», «Å» not used. Women's and men's names alternate continuously - contrary to the WMO recommendation, annual change. It started with storm Agnar (October 12, 1995, No. 9 in the extreme weather list; the first storms on this list are called “navnløs”, “nameless”), and since then they have started again with “A” three times (No. 31 January 2003, No. 53 January 2010, No. 75 December 2017). [obsolete] The list is not publicly available, the respective name will only be announced when the storm appears, but for the list after 2017 the public contributed the names.

Sweden's Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has also been naming storm systems since 2013 . This is followed by a list of the name days for the date on which the respective storm reaches the borders of Sweden. This list of names is called Almanackans namnlängd , it is based on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints , generally applies to language maintenance for specifically Swedish personal names (such as Knut, 13.1., Bengt, 21.3.) And is drawn up by the Namnlängdskommittéen of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. This list only contains four church festivals, Candlemas ( kyndelsmässodagen , 2.2.), Annunciation ( Marie bebådelsedag , 25.3.), John the Baptist ( Johannes Döparens dag , 24.6.) And All Saints' Day ( allhelgonadagen , 1.11.) - these four days could be for Storms occur. The storm Simone (October 27th / 28th) was the first name according to the Swedish system.

In the same year the Danish Meteorological Institute  (DMI) began to name the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) following a resolution by the then Minister of Climate and Energy . The occasion was the German Christian named storm, which was called St Jude's Day Storm in the English press , Simone in Sweden , which caused greater confusion in the Danish media. The DMI employees are allowed to choose the names on the basis of five suggestions, which are kept simple according to specifications and also focus on local names. As in Norway, women's and men's names are constantly alternating. The first storm after this decision, on October 28, 2013, was named according to a reader poll by Ekstra Bladet Allan . The DMI's first self-naming was the following storm Bodil (December 4-7, 2013).

In order to avoid further double names in the Scandinavian region, the three weather services reached an agreement that the name should be given by the person whose country is affected first. In the case of north-moving Atlantic lows (Scandinavia type), this is typically Norway first, in east- moving Atlantic lows (Skagerrak type) Denmark, and above Sweden only a few low systems appear first. This means that the use of male and female names in the sequence is mixed, and sometimes the sequence in the Abc.

British Isles (Met Office, United Kingdom / Met Éireann, Ireland)

In the English-speaking countries of Europe, until recently, weather events were mainly named by the press, storms often according to traditional custom after the name of the day of arrival. Met Office and Met Éireann set up a stand-alone system for the British Isles in 2015/16 . According to US-American usage, it is based on pre-created lists of names specific to the year, which are then assigned in sequence to deep systems relevant for severe weather warnings, but only to such. High pressure systems are not named. The criterion is a warning level orange (amber; be prepared ) or red (take action) according to the severe weather warning system of the National Severe Weather Warning Service .

The name was chosen by the public (Campaign Name our storms ), the first letters “Q”, “U”, “X”, “Y” and “Z” are not used, male and female names change each time. Names that are not needed this year expire. Names already given by the US-NHC for hurricanes are taken over from the series (with “ex-”), as are those given by the cooperation MeteoFrance / AEMET / IMPA .

The first weather event named according to this system was Storm Angus in November 2016. In the introductory phase there was confusion, for example about the naming of secondary lows in Storm David (with a name given by Meteo-France / AEMET / IMPA) and the following low Fionn , where a The name Georgina also circulated for a while, which Met Office had to deny. Due to the restriction to storm lows, in practice there were also events such as the cold wave February / March 2018 , which became known under the trivial name The Beast from the East , but whose centers of action also in English-speaking countries as Hoch Hartwig (with the DWD / FU Berlin name) and Tief Emma (with the Meteo France / AEMET / IMPA name). There were suspicions that the five weather services Met Office, Met Éireann, MeteoFrance, AEMET and IMPA would  create a joint list for the weather year 2018/19. But that has not happened yet. With the 2019/2020 season, the Netherlands will participate in the cooperation between Met Office and Met Éireann.

Southern Western Europe (Meteo-France, France / AEMET, Spain / IMPA, Portugal)

On December 1, 2017, the weather services of France, Spain and Portugal, Météo-France , Agencia Estatal de Meteorología  (AEMET) and Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera  (IMPA) also decided to set up their own naming system.

It also has year-specific US-style name lists prepared in advance for low-pressure systems that are suspicious of storms, but not for harmless lows or high-pressure areas. The criterion for assigning a name in France are storms (with gusts of 100 km / h or more) that are classified as “significant” at national level (affect more than 10% of the country). In Spain there is a warning level orange (naranja) or red (rojo) according to the national severe weather warning system Plan Meteoalerta (with regard to wind speeds over 90, 100 or 110 km / h depending on the region; other criteria on the coast). The names have so far been chosen jointly by the three weather services, and are alternately a customary name and female / male. Names that Met Office / Met Éireann first assigned will be adopted, as will those of the US-NHC for tropical storms (with «ex-»)

The first storm to be named after this system was the Föhnsturm December 2017 , Spanish Ana , German Yves . There were suspicions that the five weather services MeteoFrance, AEMET, IMPA, Met Office and Met Éireann would  create a joint list for the weather year 2018/19. However, this cooperation has not yet been implemented.

Mediterranean and Eastern Europe

No naming system has yet been developed for this space. Strong storm lows rarely occur, the typical rain-bringing Mediterranean lows are more common , so that there is little need for naming. In addition, both Italy ( MeteoAM ) and Greece ( ΕΜΥ / HNMS ) have military state weather services that do little public relations work. The FU Berlin only names those weather systems that are effective in Germany, so Mediterranean lows are rarely mentioned, and Vb lows that move onward usually only when they arrive in the southern impoundment of the Sudetes, long after they have had consequences in Switzerland or Austria. Therefore, these terms remain consistently uncommon in southern Europe. Occasionally names appear that found their way into the press from private weather services or communities, for example the cold air break in with Medicane in November 2017 , which traded as Attila in Italy and Zenon in Greece (German: Lemmy and Numa ). The storm lows advancing from the Atlantic between Biscay and the Azores into the Mediterranean area will probably have names from Met Office / Met Éireann and MeteoFrance / AEMET / IMPA from 2018 (just as Hurricane Klaus  was known under the German name until Italy in 2009). To what extent MeteoFrance (France) or AEMET (Spain) will then also name lows that only form in the Mediterranean region remains to be seen. [outdated]

The CEE and Eastern European countries, whose bad weather arrives consistently from northwest to west, rarely southwest, have so far mostly used the names of the Free University of Berlin, as found in the daily press. If necessary, they will be adapted to the respective national language, so the storm Xaver  2013 in Poland was called Ksawery .

Tropical Oceans (WMO, international)

Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific and Indian typhoons and cyclones are named after an international system that was originally started by the US National Weather Service and is now under the aegis of the WMO. The names are assigned by the regional weather service entrusted as the control center ( Regional Specialized Meteorological Center , RSMC or Tropical Cyclone Warning Center , TCWC). Several lists of names are available, which are successively assigned to low pressure systems with at least storm force every year. The next list begins next year, so that the first storm of the year is usually "A". Names that have become particularly prominent in the negative sense (such as Katrina  2005) are removed from the list. However, there are also somewhat different systems, for example the names for the northern Indian Ocean are not assigned according to the alphabet and are not used again, and the names assigned in the western Pacific are not arranged alphabetically and are usually not personal names.

Web links

  1. ^ List of names of low pressure areas and list of names of high pressure areas of the current year , Free University of Berlin: met.fu-berlin.de/wetterpate.
  2. ↑ Norske ekstremvær får navn (Ekstremværlista). Meteorologisk Institutt: met.no (Norwegian bokmål).
  3. ^ UK Storm Center , Met Office: metoffice.gov.uk.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Norske ekstremvær får navn. met.no: Å varsle været ('Weather forecast: Norwegian extreme weather designation'; Norwegian bokmål; accessed March 20, 2017).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Reinhard or Ylva - How lows get their names. DWD: Theme of the day , 24 November 2017 (on the Norway hurricane Ylva ).
  3. ↑ a b History of naming , FU Berlin.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Bodil, Egon, Gorm og I ... Derfor har danske storme navne. Bjarne Siewertsen at dmi.dk: nyheder , January 9, 2017 ('News: Why Danish storms have names'; Danish; accessed March 20, 2017); see Navngivne storme i Danmark , Danish Wikipedia.
  5. ↑ a b Official website for weather sponsorship . met.fu-berlin.de.
  6. ↑ The next autumn storm could bear your name. Report at SRF
  7. ↑ Forecast for Mon September 12, 2011 12 UTC , DWD, on met.fu-berlin.de
  8. ↑ Forecast for Tuesday October 21, 2014 12 UTC , DWD, on met.fu-berlin.de
  9. ↑ a b c Vem namnger stormar? smhi.se Kunskapsbanken ('Knowledge database: Who gives the storms their names'; Swedish; accessed March 20, 2017).
  10. ↑ Namnlängden. svenskaakademien.se (accessed March 20, 2017); see Namnsdagar i Sverige , Swedish Wikipedia.
  11. ↑ Weather warnings guide. metoffice.gov.uk (undated).
  12. ↑ Storm Angus - the first named UK storm of autumn 2016. Sancha Lancaster, in: EUMETSAT: Scienceblog , December 1, 2016.
  13. ↑ “ There has been no #StormGeorgina. " Met Office, 1:27 AM - January 18, 2018 . Tweet on twitter.com - the name was of course given later.
  14. ↑ a b c Ana, la primera borrasca con nombre en España. Araceli Acosta, in: ABC online, December 7, 2017.
  15. ^ A b Météo-France nomme les tempêtes. In: MeteoFrance Espace presse , December 4, 2017 (same also WMO: Media News from Members , December 6, 2017).
  16. ↑ a b Aemet, MéteoFrance y el IMPA, pondrán nombre a las borrascas profundas que puedan afectar a España, Francia o Portugal. In: AEMET: Noticias. December 7, 2017 - with a link to the Umbrales y niveles de avisos warning system . ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aemet.es archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ibid., pdf (last accessed March 4, 2018).
  17. ↑ Ophelia  2017 would have been an exception in this regard , the first hurricane observed so far with a north-east trajectory, it was still highly active in the area of ​​influence of the Iberian Peninsula; At the time, the Meteo-France / AEMET / IMPA system did not yet exist, Met Office / Met Éireann named it “ex-” .
  18. ↑ cf. Hurricane Ksawery. Article in the Polish Wikipedia.