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2024–25 European windstorm season

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Background and naming

Definitions and naming conventions

There is no universal definition of what constitutes a windstorm in Europe, nor is there a universal system of naming storms.

In the Western Group, consisting of the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, a storm is named if one of those meteorological agencies issues an orange warning (known as amber in the UK per its National Severe Weather Warning Service system), which generally requires a likelihood of widespread sustained wind speeds greater than 65 km/h, or widespread wind gust speeds over 110 km/h. Required speeds vary slightly by agency and by season. Likelihood of on-land human impacts and inherent severity of the system further factors in whether to use the next pre-listed name.

The Southwest Group conducts its own naming (Spain, Portugal, and France).

For Greece to call upon the next name of its Group, the criteria are when forecast winds are above 50 km/h over land plus expected to impact infrastructure significantly. For Denmark to do so, a windstorm must have an hourly average windspeed of at least 90 km/h (25 m/s).

The Meteorology Department of the Free University of Berlin (FUB) names all high and low-pressure systems that affect Europe, though they do not assign names to any actual storms. A windstorm that is associated with one of these pressure systems is sometimes recognized by the name given to the associated pressure system by the FUB. Named windstorms that have been recognized by a European meteorological agency are described in this article.

Invoking the next listed name in Europe is commonly by a storm's forecast conditions in the next day or so – as public awareness and preparedness are often cited as the main purpose. A nascent storm very occasionally does not become or remain a storm when reaching the forecasting authority.

Western Group (United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands)

In 2015, the Met Office and Met Éireann asked the public for name suggestions; its first "Name our Storms" promotion. The offices produced the publicly nominated list for 2015–2018, common to both the UK and Ireland, with the Netherlands taking part from 2019 onwards.

These names were chosen for the 2024–2025 season in the UK, Ireland and Netherlands. For a windstorm to be named, the United Kingdom's Met Office, Ireland's Met Éireann, or the Netherlands' Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) have to issue an amber weather warning, most often for wind, but a storm can also be named for amber warnings of rain and snow (e.g. Storm Arwen in 2021).

South-Western Group (France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg)

This was the eighth year of the meteorological agencies of France, Spain and Portugal making a naming list of storms for their group.

Central Mediterranean Group (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta)

The following names are chosen for the 2024–25 season in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta on 1 September 2024.

Eastern Mediterranean Group (Greece, Israel and Cyprus)

The Eastern Mediterranean Group works slightly differently compared to other naming lists, instead of ending a season on 31 August of that year, they end the season on 30 September of that year. These are the names that were chosen for the 2024–25 season in Greece, Israel and Cyprus:

Northern Group (Denmark, Norway and Sweden)

This naming group, like the naming from the Free University of Berlin, does not use a naming list but names storms when it has not received a name by any other meteorological service in Europe and is projected to affect Denmark, Norway or Sweden.

  • Jakob
  • Sif

Central/FUB naming Group (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary)

Like the Northern Group, the Free University of Berlin names storms based on low pressures across the continent and does not use a naming list. The storms listed below were strong enough or were anticipated to cause equal or more disruption than if it were named by one of the other groups.

  • Quiteria
  • Bianca
  • Ginette
  • Darius
  • Augustin

Atlantic ex-tropical cyclones

Ex-tropical cyclones (subtropical storms, tropical storms, or hurricanes) that directly impacted a European country from the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season or 2025 Atlantic hurricane Season which became a European windstorm and retained its name as assigned by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida.

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