Storms Idris, Deirdre and Tristan could all batter the UK this winter, as the monikers have been picked as storm names by the Met Office and its Irish counterpart Met Eireann.
For the fourth year running, the list has been compiled from suggestions by members of the public, with the weather experts selecting the names that reflect the nations, culture and diversity of the UK and Ireland.
This year the first storm gets a male name, Ali, followed by an alternating pattern of female and male names which was established by the US National Hurricane Centre in the 1970s.
The alphabetical list of names skips Q, U, X, Y and Z to comply with international storm-naming conventions.
See the full list of names below:
Derrick Ryall, head of public weather services at the Met Office, said: “Naming storms has been proved to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK, providing a consistent message to the public and crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.”
Polling has found nearly 80 percent of people think giving storms a name was useful in making them aware the severe weather may have more impact than normal, while 63 percent believe it is useful in letting them know to take action.
The 2017/18 season kicked off with Storm Aileen, the first of 10 severe weather events to be named in the past year, and ended with Hector earlier this summer.
Evelyn Cusack, head of forecasting at Met Eireann, said: “The last 12 months have seen some extreme weather around the globe as well as here at home.
“While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one we are prepared with a whole new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us.
“As before, Met Eireann forecasters will work in close co-operation with our colleagues from the Met Office in the UK to keep all the peoples of these islands warned of impending severe weather.”
The US is currently gearing up for the onshore arrival of Storm Florence, a category five hurricane that is expected to cause severe damage to the east coast this week.
Florence was named by the US National Hurricane Centre, as were Storms Helene and Isaac, which are currently brewing in the Atlantic.
