The 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season was the first instance of the United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann naming extratropical cyclones. The season started on 10 November with the naming of Storm Abigail and ended on 28 March with the dissipation of Storm Katie. With a total of eleven named storms, the 2015–16 season is the most active to date. Storms are named when they are forecast to cause hazards due to high winds by either organisation. The season is most notable for the amount of rainfall which fell over the UK and Ireland, causing the 2015–16 Great Britain and Ireland floods; most of which is attributed to Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank. Its strongest low-altitude gusts to hit land came from storms Gertrude and Katie – on 29 January, Gertrude's 105 mph (169 km/h; 91 kn) at Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland and Katie's 106 mph (171 km/h; 92 kn) on 28 March at The Needles Old Battery, the narrow western tip of the Isle of Wight, England. The season preceded the 2016–17 UK and Ireland windstorm season.
Background
Earlier in 2015, the Met Office and Met Éireann announced a pilot project to name wind storms and asked the public for suggestions. The full list of names for 2015, common to both the UK and Ireland, chosen for future selection are:
A storm will be named when it is deemed able to have a "substantial" impact on the UK or Ireland. They will be taken from the list, in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female names – the same naming convention used by the United States for tropical cyclones. In the case of storms resulting from ex-tropical storms and hurricanes, the original name allocated by the US National Hurricane Center will be used. Met Éireann name any storm which triggers a status orange or red weather warning for wind. The basis for such as outlined on their weather warning service are mean wind speeds in excess of 80 km/h (50 mph; 43 kn) or gusts over 130 km/h (81 mph; 70 kn). Similarly, the Met Office name storms that have the potential to cause medium (orange) or high (red) impacts to the UK. It describes the wind strength relative to observations such as "falling trees or tiles and other items like garden furniture being blown around."
Seasonal summary Comparison of strongest gusts associated with each storm in the UK and Ireland.
Storms
Storm Abigail
Abigail was the first storm to be officially named (jointly) by the Met Office and Met Éireann on 10 November 2015. The Free University of Berlin named the cyclone Frank. A Met Office yellow warning for wind was issues to all of Scotland on 11 November; with amber warnings for the Western Isles, north west Highlands, parts of Argyll and Orkney. Initial forecasts on 12 November from a Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office warned of wind gusts widely reaching 60 and 80 to 90 mph (97 and 129 to 145 km/h; 52 and 70 to 78 kn) in exposed locations. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency also warned of the risk of flooding due to the storm, as the weather system was anticipated to create a storm surge along the south-west and west coast, due to coincidence with a high tide. Abigail brought high winds, rain, lightning, and wintry showers across the north and northwest of Scotland. On 12 November, local ferries were affected by bad weather with many services cancelled. It was announced that every school in the Western Isles and Shetland were to be closed to pupils on 13 November. The storm left more than 20,000 homes without power, according to energy company SSE.
Storm Barney
A yellow warning for wind was issued by the Met Office for Wales, along with southern, central and eastern England, with gusts of 70 to 80 mph (110 to 130 km/h; 61 to 70 kn) expected on 17 November. It affected Ireland, Wales, southern and eastern England and the Midlands, where thousands of homes lost power and rail services were disrupted. The storm was named Heini by the Free University of Berlin adopt-a-vortex scheme.
Storm Clodagh
The Met Office issued a statement on 26 November saying that despite a prediction of windy weather in the coming days, the weather system was unlikely to become a named storm. On 28 November, Met Éireann upgraded its warnings and named the storm Clodagh. The Danish Meteorological Institute christened the low as Gorm on the same evening. The Free University of Berlin named the low Nils II. In the UK and Ireland, Clodagh's impact was most severe in Ireland and North West England. In the Republic of Ireland 6,000 people were left without power. In Northwest England 10,000 customers were without power. It also caused disruption to transport in the North of England and Scotland.
Storm Desmond
Desmond was the fourth storm to be officially named, with heavy rain and severe gales forecast for 5–6 December across Ireland and the north of the UK. On 4 December, the Met Office issued yellow warnings for wind and rain across most of the north of the UK and an amber warning for rain in parts of central and southern Scotland, Tayside and Fife. Met Éireann issued a status red rainfall warning for areas of Connacht, as well as counties Donegal, Clare and Kerry, with Clare County Council issuing a flood warning. On 5 December, the Met Office issued a red severe weather warning for rain in Cumbria. The Environment Agency had severe flood warnings in place for parts of the River Tyne in Northumberland and across Cumbria. The expected heavy rainfall was considered to be an extreme weather event by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who named it Synne. The US National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center tweeted that the heavy rain was due to Desmond pulling a plume of moist air across the Atlantic Ocean to Western Europe, a weather phenomenon known as an atmospheric river. Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Hawick, Scottish Borders on 5 December, because the River Teviot flooded. Appleby and Keswick in the English county of Cumbria suffered blocked roads and some homes were evacuated; Cumbria Police declared the situation a "major incident". Homes left without electricity occurred in North Yorkshire (over 600) and in Wales (about 700); a further 2,000 people were without power in the Republic of Ireland. Landslides and flooding closed some main roads in Scotland and counties Down and Tyrone suffered road closures from fallen trees.
Storm Eva
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