The British national weather service, more commonly known as the Met Office, has announced that it is giving social media-using members of the general public the chance to name storms and bad weather that hit the UK and Ireland over the winter.
This move is a pilot project, which sees the Met Office partnering up with its Irish equivalent, Met Eireann, and aims to stimulate public interest in the weather. More importantly, this light-hearted project is to raise awareness amongst the public about severe weather and to enhance the safety of the country’s population.
The announcement of this has, of course, lead the British public to come up with some creative and typically British responses:
https://twitter.com/MarkRClay/status/641210704704483329?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
John, Paul, George, Ringo #nameourstorms
— Joanna Geary ⚡️ (@JoannaG) September 8, 2015
Hurricane Tetley if it's a storm in a teacup. Unless it's a Typhoo-n of course. #nameourstorms
— Iain Cameron (@willicm) September 8, 2015
Anyone can contribute their name suggestions to the Met Office through popular social network Twitter. Users simply tweet their ideas to the service’s account, @metoffice, and use the hashtag #nameourstorms. Other media through which you can send your thoughts include the company’s official Facebook page or via email.
Once the list has been fully composed, the names will be selected in alphabetical order and alternate between male and female names.
The Met Office has also explained the point at which a storm is named to help the public better understand how weather warnings work. A storm is named once it has been deemed to potentially cause medium or high impact winds in the UK and Ireland. Storms that head over the Atlantic as part of an aftermath of a U.S. hurricane will not be renamed.
- Chrome to warn users regarding insecure web forms - August 20, 2020
- Google trials virtual business cards in India - August 14, 2020
- DuckDuckGo claims Google market share would drop if users given choice - August 11, 2020
RT @EngageWeb: Met Office opens the floodgates: http://t.co/X5HZZMHD8D